GM mustard: No nod without checks

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 5

Amid protests by activists, including RSS-backed organisations and Left parties to look for “non-GM mustard hybrids” to improve productivity, the Centre today said commercial release of genetically modified mustard would not be approved without due processes.

Protesting activists said Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar promised a consultation with them before the central regulator on transgenic crops — the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) — arrives at a decision on the contentious issue.

The development came on the day Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh called genetic engineering a “tool to break yield barrier in many crops”. At the same time, he added his “department supports research on transgenic crops if it is conducted as per approved procedure and guidelines and various bio and environmental safety measures are followed and prescribed approvals obtained from the GEAC”.

The protesters said the GEAC today deliberated upon safety aspects of GM mustard but did not take any decision on its commercial release. While the GEAC said a representation from the Health Ministry would be included in consultations, apparently the findings of scientific field trials would also be made public. This is one of the key demands of anti-GM crop groups, including the RSS-linked Swadeshi Jagran Manch and the CPI.

“The Environment Minister assured the delegation that without due process, GM mustard would not be approved. The delegation pressed home the point that genetically modified organism (GMO) regulation has to begin with a needs assessment, and whether alternatives are available or not, and applications should not be processed routinely without policy directives put into place,” said Kavitha Kuruganti of the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA).

Pointing to numerous other methods for improving mustard productivity in the country, CPI leader D Raja questioned the need for processing an application that is clearly based on a presumptive need that is unfounded.

GM mustard would be the first food crop to be approved for commercialisation in India, if it gets the regulators’ green signal. Critics warn that while productivity can be increased through various measures, “use of bacterial genes in mustard for inducing male sterility and herbicide tolerance will result in adverse impacts on health and environment.”