The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : `Genetically modified crops not hazardous'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 13, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

`Genetically modified crops not hazardous'

Special Correspondent

Field trial being conducted in accordance with biosafety guidelines and approval of Central Government: TNAU

COIMBATORE: The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University has sought to allay fears among farmers that genetically engineered crops are hazardous. Referring to a group of farmers from certain organisations destroying genetically modified (GM) rice here on Friday, the university said in a press release that it wanted to allay the fears among farmers, environmentalists and the general public that such crops posed risk to people's health.

With approval

The university said its scientists had visited the rice field at Alandurai recently and found that the trial was being conducted in accordance with the biosafety guidelines and with the approval of the Central Government.

It said development of genetically modified cultivars had been recognised world over as one of the methods of crop improvement for the past two decades.

Modern biotechnological approaches were employed to improve specific desired traits of crops that were otherwise difficult to achieve through conventional methods.

For instance, no resistance source was found among the cultivated genotypes to cotton bollworms.

Alternative sources

So, none of the traditional cotton varieties or hybrids was resistant to these pests. This made scientists look for alternative sources.

Bt (bacillus thuringiensis) proteins in plants were the answer to the bollworm problem.

GM crops were cultivated over 222 million acres by 8.5 million farmers in 21 countries.

The area under these crops had increased every year since the first one was planted in 1996.

In India, Bt cotton was the only GM crop approved so far for commercial cultivation.

The areas under this crop had increased phenomenally from a few thousand acres in 2002 to more than 3.25 million acres in 2005.

Referring to the Coimbatore incident again, the release said that some activities alleged that Bt crops were injected with virulent virus. This was not true.

In the GM rice, a gene of the Bt had been introduced to provide crylac protein that killed pests such as stem borer and leaf folder.

It was not capable of killing insects belonging to the non-target groups.

It had been proved through biosafety experiments "beyond doubt" that the protein was non-toxic to human beings and animals.

Bt proteins were in use as a bio-pesticide since the sixties. Farmers across the world had safely sprayed Bt formulations on food crops. Even now these were available in the market.

The Bt protein had a history of safe use.

The major difference between the use of Bt formulations and Bt crops was that the crop itself produced the protein.

It had also been argued that GM crops were a threat to bio-diversity.

The fact was that Bt genes could be introduced in any variety or hybrid that were popularly cultivated.

Hence, it did not in anyway affect the bio-diversity. Besides, Bt crops, including Bt rice, were harmless to the environment. It could also fit into any crop sequence. Bt cotton farmers had successfully grown other crops immediately after Bt cotton since 2002.

According to some activists, Bt hybrid seeds became infertile and could not be re-sown.

Both in Bt cotton and Bt rice (under field trials), the GM trait had been introduced into the hybrids that were popular among farmers.

That was why such hybrids were chosen for genetic modification.

Fresh seeds

Whether GM or non-GM, farmers had to purchase fresh seeds to reap the benefits of hybrid vigour.

This fact was well known to every hybrid-growing farmer. Bt gene had nothing to do with infertility.

Activists related farmers' suicides to Bt cotton cultivation.

In fact, with the advent of Bt cotton, the farmers got better returns. Crop loss owing to bollworm declined and there was better fibre quality and less use of pesticide.

Acceptance

The expansion in the area under Bt cotton in the country proved the acceptance of this technology by farmers. At present, a third of the cotton area had Bt hybrids.

The commercial release of GM crops was now regulated in the country by the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (under the Department of Biotechnology of the Union Ministry of Science and Technology) and the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee that functioned under the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests).

Monitored

Besides, biosafety committees at the State and university levels also monitored the field trials.

There was an established regulatory system in place, the release said.

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