Protests sprout ahead of new field trials of India’s first GM foodcrop

Indian Express, Oct 25, 2008

Bhubaneswar, October 24 : A vegetable is at the centre of a row in Orissa as it is likely to become the first genetically-modified (GM) foodcrop to be permitted for commercial production in the country. While anti-GM activists in the state and elsewhere are furious at the insufficient data on the safety aspects of the crop, Bt (bacillus thuringiensis) brinjal seeds are likely to be sown in Orissa sometime next month as part of the countrywide field trials of Varanasi-based Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (IIVR).
The seeds of Bt brinjal developed by Mumbai-based Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company, a subsidiary of multinational seed major Monsanto, contain a foreign gene, cry1Ac, derived from a soil bacteria, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). The toxin-producing gene from the bacteria kills fruit and shoot borer (FSB), the most common insect pest that devours about 50 per cent of brinjal crop in the country. Its incorporation into brinjal is said to be toxic to FSB and thus reduces reliance on pesticides.

Though the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) of the Union Forest and Environment Ministry in August 2007 granted permission for large-scale field trials of Bt brinjal at 11 locations, including the Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) in Bhubaneswar, under the direct supervision of IIVR, officials of the Orissa Government say they had no clue about it.

Orissa officials claim they came to know about OUAT being the site of field trials only when the GEAC in May this year wrote to the university’s vice-chancellor. The university is now waiting for the criteria of the test as well as funds from the IIVR to begin a belated trial over a 2,000 sq m plot in Bhubaneswar.
Completion of the trials would lead to commercial cultivation of Bt brinjal sometime in 2011. But even as OUAT scientists gear up for the field trials, anti-GM activists and farmers in the state are up in arms, saying it would bring doom to over 150 indigenous varieties of brinjal in the state. “We would gherao the agriculture minister and OUAT. If necessary, we would uproot Bt brinjal saplings,” says Debjeet Sarangi of Living Farms, an anti-GM group in Orissa, adding the state Government and institutions like OUAT could have refused the GEAC offer of field trial.
“If the state Government is not able to stop illegal cultivation of Bt cotton in the districts of Raygada, Bolangir and Kalahandi, how can it ensure that bio-safety protocols are followed for the cultivation of GM foodcrops like Bt brinjal?” asks Saroj Mohanty of Paschim Odisha Krushak Sangathan Samnwaya Samiti.

Kavita Kurugranti, another anti-GM activist, is upset about the fact that the GEAC is deciding on behalf of the state for the GM crop trial. “Agriculture is a state subject and agriculture universities like OUAT are under the respective state governments. So neither the Centre nor any Central body can force the state in matters of agriculture. The state’s concern should be for the local farmers and not the seed companies. Since all the data about Bt brinjal has been generated by Mahyco and has not been verified, the state Government should not allow the trial. I want the Orissa Government to stand up and say no to it,” she says.

The activists are also worried about the possible contamination of the local varieties. Though Debraj Naik, Dean of Research in OUAT, dismisses such possibilities saying the trial would be done under strict and isolated conditions, not everyone agrees with it. Since 80 per cent farmers in Orissa who do brinjal cultivation are poor and marginal, any possible contamination of their crop from the Bt crop would ruin them forever. “Once GM crop is released into field, it can’t be taken back and the damage might be irreversible,” agrees a scientist.

State Agriculture Secretary U P Singh says the Naveen Patnaik Government as a matter of principle would not encourage GM crop in Orissa. But even OUAT scientists, who are doing a separate trial of Bt cotton at Bhawanipatna area of Kalahandi for its biosafety, admit that regulating GM crop would be an impossible task.