A ten year blanket ban on open field trials of genetically modified crops proposed by an expert committee set up by the Supreme Court has
rung alarm bells in the cotton sector. A senior Government official said that it would be like gifting a ten year monopoly on BT cotton
to a single player Monsanto and clipping the wings of up coming competitors including Bayer, Dow, Du Pont and Syngenta and some
public sector companies.
Monsanto has completed its trials and can reap the gains in the coming years while the other companies are still only at the start of
their trials, the official said on terms of anonymity.This would give significant advantage to Monsanto. Already 97 per cent of the cotton
cultivated area is with Monsanto.The report is like handing over the entire market on a platter to Monsanto for the next one decade, he
said.
The ban if accepted by the Supreme Court which begins hearing on October 29, would also mean a return to the high insecticide
consumption trend that was witnessed till 2001 before BT cotton came in.
While insecticide use was 46 per cent in 2001 it went down to 21 per cent in five years, an official said. The ban will help the insecticide manufacturers all of whom are multi national companies who have been hit with a 60 per cent fall in demand since the advent of BT cotton, Government sources said.
Activist and scientist Suman Sahai dismissed the fear that it would help monopoly of one company and elimination of others. ''We have to
ensure our system is in order and we dont have to facilitate anyone,'' she said. Sir rap senior Vice President nuziveedu seeds said his company had sponsored gm research in cotton, rice and corn. All that will go waste. This whole position is driven by emotion than reason, he said.
The Technical Expert Committee was appointed by the Supreme Court to advise whether open field trials should be fully or partially banned
in the country. The panel was set up in a petition by activist Aruna Rodrigues against Union of India. The main reasons cited by the panel for the proposed ban was the need to overhaul the regulatory mechanism and guidelines for GMOs to ensure safety of the crops for human health and environment.
It cites conflict of interest in regulatory bodies like GEAC and RCGMunder the department of biotechnology. It says that the latter's
mandate is to promote GMOs and cant be a good judge for biosafety. It also asks for time to ensure that systems are built in that
facilitates appointment of qualified scientists equipped to monitor bio safety, and also introducing long term toxicity tests on small
animals covering their full life cycle before allowing any further trials.
It says specific cites for field trials have to be determined and certified in the country and no other place should be used for these trials. All this it said would need time. A moratorium has been in place for BT brinjal trials following a decision take by the then Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh in 2010.
The report echoes the recommendations made recently by a parliamentary standing committee on GM crops but contradicts the
recommendations of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Prime Minister which recently advocated continuation of trials and had even
found the regulatory system robust.
The members of the TEC included PS Chauhan, PC Keshavan, Prof PS Ramakrishnan, Dr Imran Siddiqi and B Shivakumar.
