Economic Survey: India needs debate on GM crops, hybrids to facilitate introduction

The Survey said that due to consecutive years of drought in the country the farm sector needs a transformation to ensure sustainable livelihoods for the farmers and food security for the population

In one of the clearest indications of the Centre’s roadmap on GM crops, the Economic Survey 2015-16 tabled today in Parliament said that India needs to debate, test and evaluate the environmental and ethical concerns on GM crops, their risk to the food chain, dieses spread and cross pollination in the next six months to facilitate their introduction

“The adoption of hybrid and High- Yielding Varieties seeds is one definite pathway to raising productivity in Indian agriculture,” the Survey said. The broader hybrid category also includes GM seeds. 

The Survey which many experts are considering as an precursor to the 2016-17 Union Budget to be tabled in next week also said that due to consecutive years of drought in the country the farm sector needs a transformation to ensure sustainable livelihoods for the farmers and food security for the population. 

“The transformation in agriculture has to be steered by raising productivity in agriculture, by investing in efficient irrigation technologies, and efficient use of all inputs,” it said. 

On irrigation, the Survey said that there is a scope for increasing  the coverage  of irrigated area  across the country to  increase productivity in agriculture. For this, the survey suggested higher public investment in the irrigation sector.

It also advocated for larger share of funds to be pumped in MGNREGA and other employment generating schemes for creation and and maintenance of community assets including de-silting  and repair of  tanks and other water bodies that are used for irrigation.

On fertilisers, the Survey highlights the need to rationalise the subsidy through adoption of the DBT platform and in case of P and K fertiliser subsidy, with the Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) scheme, a fixed amount of subsidy will be given on each grade based on their content.