Procedural issues continue to hinder commercialisation of GM crops in India

Two decades after Bt cotton made its debut in India, commercialisation of genetically modified crops remains mired in complex procedural rules

Last month, after a considerable gap, the Haryana government gave Mahyco a no-objection certificate (NOC) to seed major field trials of a herbicide-tolerant (HT) and insect-resistant BT cotton variety, called BG-3 RRF.

In a normal world, field trials of a new variant would have been a routine exercise that seed companies need to conduct to test a variant before its commercial release or further evaluation.

But given the complexities, delays and political controversy that have marked the commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) crops in India, this relatively small move is being seen as a significant step forward in some quarters.