GM loses sheen

Biotechnology companies are reported to be losing interest in committing fresh investments in evolving new genetically modified (GM) seeds. This is borne out by the perceptible decline in the number of such new products offered for field trials and approval in most countries, including the US which has been the global leader in this field.

This is cause for both surprise and concern. The about-turn in the mood on GM seeds has come about despite rapid expansion in the aceage under GM crops globally, and the equally rapid erosion in consumer resistance to these products""regardless of the relentless campaigning by anti-GM lobbyists.

It is also disquieting because the benefits of this technology for the agriculture sector will remain under-tapped if the GM crop pipeline dries up. Last year alone, the acreage devoted to GM crops in the world is estimated to have grown by 20 per cent. Indeed, the total land under these crops has witnessed a nearly 47-fold expansion since commercialisation began in 1996.

Though India is a late starter, the growth in the popularity of Bt-cotton, the only GM crop to have so far been commercialised here, has been substantial.

Unconfirmed estimates put the area under Bt-cotton in 2004 at around 500,000 hectares, against merely 100,000 hectares a year earlier. Even European countries, which have been ultra-suspicious about these crops so far, too, are believed to be softening their stand.

One reason for the downturn in research on GM seeds could be the protracted and cumbersome procedure for getting approval for the commercialisation of GM crops developed at massive cost. Most companies can ill afford to lock in such huge investments for very long.

Besides, they have to cope with the anti-GM campaign. As a result, the commercial exploitation of GM technology has remained confined to a few crops, notably cotton, maize, soyabean and rapeseed. India is no exception.

In fact, the GM crop approval procedure here is far more exhaustive and time-consuming than in most other countries. This acts as a deterrent for biotechnology companies coming to India and investing in crops of interest to local farmers.

What is worse, the GM seeds of several crops developed by the public sector agricultural research system in India have remained confined to their laboratories and experimental farms. As such, Indian farmers are being denied the advantages that could have accrued to them by way of enhanced crop yields and lower spending on pesticides.

What is needed is a thorough review of GM crop approval procedures. Caution cannot be set aside, especially in the case of transgenic seeds, where alien genes from non-plant sources (such as Bt gene from soil bacteria) are incorporated into a crop. But once a gene has been proved harmless for the environment and for health, in India or elsewhere, its use in other crops or varieties need not be subjected to further prolonged and rigorous testing.

Besides, the approval granting authority should vest with the agriculture ministry, which controls the farm research network, rather than the environment ministry, which has no expertise in either plant breeding or biotechnology.

Otherwise, genetically-engineered products like the Vitamin A-incorporated "golden rice" might never become accessible to the Indian poor, large numbers of whom face the risk of blindness due to Vitamin A deficiency.