 "IS GM mustard harmful for honey bees?")
The fight over GM mustard had moved on to a new platform with honey bee manufacturers joining the debate as to whether genetically modified mustard seed is harmful for the honey making industry.
Last week, honey makers under the aegis of Confederation of Bee Keeping Industry staged a protest march against GM mustard alleging that GM mustard would have a direct adverse impact on mustard production itself, when bees are adversely impacted. Around 50-60 per cent of the honey produced in India is through mustard crop.
The country annually produces around 90,000 tonnes of honey of which around 35,000 tonnes of exported for an estimated value of around Rs 750 crore. The bee keepers alleged that the livelihood of 500,000 families would be directly impacted because of GM mustard.
“Instead of bringing GM Crops and adding to the farm-input cost, promotion and organization of beekeeping in the country will make us self sufficient in oilseeds and pulses,” the association demanded.
In response, the South-Asia Biotech Centre, a lobby group of GM technologists said that health and foraging ability of honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) populations will not be affected by the pollen of GM mustard.
GM mustard is likely to have beneficial effects on honey bees population based on their relatively enhanced foraging behavior resulting in increasing honey production and income of beekeepers in mustard growing areas, SBAC said in a statement few days back.
It said that the Assessment of Environment and Food Safety (AFES) report and accompanying empirical data, available for public review at Ministry of Environment and Forests, indicate no-ill effects of GM mustard on honey bees and honey production.
“The AFES and GM mustard studies reassuringly establish that no significant difference was observed for honey bees foraging on the GM and non-GM mustard based on the scientific data generated during nine regulated field trials conducted by ICAR institutions and SAUs from 2010-11 to 2014-15,” SBAC said.
Not contented, the honey bee keepers, challenged SBAC saying that the claims were being issued by biotech industry funded bodies and these are not research organisations, but only organisations that take up propaganda work for the GM industry.
“The SABC’s statement that GM mustard does not enhance the use of sprayable insecticides is a carefully worded misleading statement. GM mustard will of course enhance the use of agri-chemicals in the form of herbicides. Such herbicides have their own toxic impacts. Other than direct toxic effect of the herbicide on bees and other beneficial insects, there is also the indirect impact of destroying habitats of bees and other insects due to the use of weedicides,” Yogeshwar Singh, a member of the association said.
It also quoted Debal Deb, an ecologist as saying that claims made by SBAC that all requisite studies have been done with respect to GM mustard is simply not true.
It might be true in the context of a compromised regulatory regime which requires very few rigorous studies, but is this what beekeepers and others should trust and depend on, especially when their first hand experience of Bt cotton tells them otherwise?
“We do know that the field study protocols were designed by crop developers to suit their convenience. We also know that the studies were conducted by the crop developers themselves when it comes to the impact on insects, including honey bees,” the statement said quoting Deb.
The actual truth, whether or not GM mustard is harmful to honey bees or not is still to be confirmed.
