Transgenic mustard can be an economic boon

Manjit S. Kang

GENETIC engineering took off in the early 1970s when biochemists Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen inserted DNA from one bacterium into another. Organisms thus developed are called genetically modified (GM) or transgenic, where genes have been transferred from one organism to an unrelated organism, e.g., bacterial genes transferred to plants — the goal being to produce a transgenic plant to obtain a plant with desired traits (high yield, quality, etc.).

Scientists inserted a human gene (for insulin) into the genetic material of a common bacterium. US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave approval to genetically engineered human insulin in 1982 to treat diabetes.

Food plants such as banana, tomato, rice and carrot have been used to produce vaccines against diseases like hepatitis B, cholera and HIV.

Tomato was the first genetically modified organism (GMO) created through genetic engineering in 1994. It was evaluated by federal agencies and found to be as safe as traditionally bred tomatoes. Other GM crops that became available to consumers in the 1990s were summer squash, soybean, cotton, corn (maize), papaya, potato and canola. In 2005, GM alfalfa and sugar beet were on sale in the US.

India is the world’s second-largest consumer and number one importer of vegetable oil; it imports about 60 per cent vegetable oil to meet its domestic needs.

Mustard is an important oil-seed crop in India. It is cultivated on about 7 million hectares (mha) across Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh. India’s productivity is quite low (1.27 tonnes per hectare) compared to that of other countries. In 2021-22, India imported 14-14.5 million tonnes of edible oil at a record cost of $18.99 billion (about Rs 1.5 lakh crore).

India so far has had only one commercial GM crop — Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton. The introduction of Bt cotton in 2002 saved the sagging cotton industry in the country. The Bt gene imparted resistance to the devastating bollworm, reducing insecticide use. India has taken a very cautious approach with respect to the approval for food crops. The release of Bt brinjal has been held up since 2010 even though the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) had okayed it. The Ministry of Environment did not allow its release in India. The Bt brinjal technology was made available to Bangladesh at a cost of Rs 25 lakh and they have been growing the crop ever since. It is interesting that the technology that was considered inadequately evaluated in India was considered safe for a neighbouring country.

Many Indian farmers and scientists are excited about the approval for transgenic hybrid mustard DMH-11 by the GEAC and the recommendation for its environmental release for seed production. The approval is conditional — initially for four years — and requires that field studies be conducted on the effects of this hybrid on honey bees and other pollinating insects. Subsequently, the approval can be extended by two years.

The work on GM mustard was done at the University of Delhi by Dr Deepak Pental’s group. The cost of creating this hybrid was estimated at more than Rs 60 crore. The DMH-11 hybrid contains two transgenes isolated from a soil bacterium, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens.

The DMH-11 is expected to increase production of mustard oil, thus raising the income of the farmers who grow GM mustard.

As with GM crops in general, there is opposition to the release of GM mustard by certain groups. There are concerns about a third gene (‘bar’ gene) that makes the GM plants tolerant to a herbicide (glufosinate) which kills weeds. The GEAC has approved the use of the herbicide only in fields used for hybrid seed production, not for commercial fields of farmers. The advantages in terms of increased oil production outweigh such concerns.

India ranked fifth worldwide in terms of area under GM crops in 2019. The US topped the list with 71.5 mha, followed by Brazil (52.8 mha), Argentina (24 mha), Canada (12.5 mha) and India (11.9 mha). In 2019, the most commonly grown genetically modified crops were soybeans, corn, cotton and canola. About 13.5 percent of all the cotton grown worldwide was GM. About 48 percent of all soybean plants were GM.

India has a long way to go in adopting transgenic technology for food crops. Sometimes, there are unfounded fears about the technology. A case in point is that of Bt cotton. Bt cotton became susceptible to the mealy bug in 2007 and to the white fly in 2015. This means the Bt genes in cotton were specific for eliminating the bollworm. The Bt gene expressed itself only in the gut of the bollworm but could do nothing to other insects. The Bt gene does not express itself in human beings. Its expression is pH-dependent and specific to the bollworm.

Nobel laureate Dr Norman Borlaug’s remarks about governments not allowing the use of products generated via genetic engineering technology are pertinent here. He said, “Indeed, the commercial adoption by farmers of transgenic crops has been one of the most rapid cases of technology diffusion in the history of agriculture... The more pertinent question today is whether farmers and ranchers will be permitted to use this new technology. While the affluent nations can certainly afford to adopt ultra-low-risk positions, and pay more for food produced by the so-called ‘organic’ methods, the one billion chronically undernourished people of the low income, food-deficit nations, cannot.”

How GM crops & Sustainable Farming Practices can improve air Quality

GM crops have reduced greenhouse gas emissions on farms globally and can help farmers adapt to and mitigate climate change

According to the USDA, adopting conservation tillage can save at least

13.2 litres of fuel per acre for farmers because they are spending less time on tractors.

If all of the corn (GM and non-GM) planted in the US in 2015 was grown with conservation tillage methods, nearly 1.2 Billion litres of fuel would be saved.

3.1 billion KG of carbon dioxide emissions prevented in the US in a year. Globally, the benefits would be far greater.

With conservation tillage, less carbon dioxide is released from the soil

Conservation tillage

Any method of soil cultivation that leaves previous year’s crop residue (corn stalks or wheat stubble) in the fields before and after planting the next crop, to reduce soil erosion and runoff.

Rice is a staple food for more than half of the world’s population. Research shows that nitrogen-use-efficient rice, which requires 50% or less than the amount of normal fertiliser applications, reduces nitrogen emissions and has shown a 30% average yield increase across four years of field trials. Source: gmoanswers.com

The author is former VC, Punjab Agricultural University, and Adjunct Professor of Genetics, Kansas State University

Send your feedback to letters@tribunemail.com