Panel approves commercial cultivation of Bt brinjal

The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), country’s bio-technology regulator, has approved the commercial cultivation of genetically modified (GM) Bt brinjal. If approved by the government, it will become the first GM food crop in India.Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh confirmed that the GEAC gave its approval. He, however, said the government was yet to take a decision on the committee’s recommendations.Talking to reporters on Wednesday, Mr. Ramesh said the recommendations and the review committee report were submitted but these would be studied in depth before a final decision was taken by the Ministry.The GEAC said an expert committee, set up to assess the impact, suggested the commercial release of Bt brinjal.

There have been concerns over lack of bio-safety data of such crops having environmental implications and strong opposition from civil society groups and non-governmental organisations.Mr. Ramesh said the final decision would not be taken under the influence of any company or any NGO. It was wrong to say that the final approval had been given.Strongly disapproving of the manner in which some NGOs, particularly Greenpeace, were registering their protest, he said it amounted to blackmailing. Greenpeace activists were sending thousands of faxes from across the world.GM crops are those in which genetic material (DNA) is altered for some perceived advantage either to the producer or the consumer.

There are four varieties of brinjals on the table for approval with the important one being cry 1Ac.The research is also part of a USAID programme called Agri-Biotechnology Support Programme under a private-public partnership where three institutions — the Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (Varanasi), the University of Agricultural Sciences (Dharwad) and the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (Coimbatore) are working with Monsanto and Mahyco.

Bt Brinjal has been under trial for the past nine years and was first sent to the GEAC for approval in 2004.It was cleared by a panel led by Deepak Pental but a review committee was constituted in 2007 when civil society groups and NGOs raised doubts over health safety and environmental concerns.The outcome of this committee was discussed on Wednesday and the GEAC cleared the commercial cultivation of Bt brinjal.

The Hindu, 15th October 2009