Activists who are ideologically opposed to genetically modified crop technology have unleashed a virulent campaign to stall the GM Mustard cultivation
Seven-and-a-half years ago, BT Brinjal, developed by two public agricultural universities, was approved for commercial cultivation by the genetic engineering approval committee (GEAC), a statutory body. BT Brinjal is inherently resistant to the notorious fruit and shoot borer (FSB) pest and therefore produces a marketable crop without the large number of chemical sprays that the farmer would have otherwise had to use. However, as fate would have it, this technology was held back from the Indian farmer through a “spoken order” by the then environment minister, Jairam Ramesh who, in the year 2010, succumbing to pressure from activists, overruled the science-based recommendation of GEAC, and imposed a moratorium on its commercialization.
To justify his action, GEAC was rechristened as an “appraisal” committee, thus robbing it of its statutory powers to be the final arbiter in the commercialization of such technologies. Though the legal validity of this usurpation of powers of a statutory body by mere ministerial wordplay is questionable, the action resulted in the shelving of a valuable technology which would have brought immense benefits to the farmers and consumers of this country.
Well, our neighbour Bangladesh, under the bold leadership of its agriculture minister, Matia Chowdhury, in the face of furious opposition by activists around the globe, went ahead and approved the technology for commercialization. Today, the Bangladeshi farmer is reaping the benefits of the technology developed in India, while our own farmers are reduced to surreptitiously planting the same seeds smuggled across the borders. Officially, the moratorium stands and therefore it is “illegal” to cultivate BT Brinjal in India.
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