The Hindu : NGOs want clearance to Bt. cotton withdrawn

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 07, 2002

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NGOs want clearance to Bt. cotton withdrawn

By Gargi Parsai

New Delhi Nov. 6. Even as the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) is meeting here tomorrow to consider the request of a private seed company (Pro-Agro, an arm of Aventis MNC) to commercialise its genetically modified (GM) mustard, NGOs today called for withdrawal of the conditional clearance given by the committee to genetically-engineered Bt. cotton ``which had failed''. They decried the secrecy in approvals to GM seeds without complete trials on biosafety and the effect on non-GM crop.

(Speaking to The Hindu, a representative of Pro-Agro, the GM mustard seed company, confirmed that they had sought approval of the GEAC for the commercial release of two varieties of GM Mustard-MT 95003 and MT 95005 — which was coming up for a decision tomorrow.)

Meanwhile, Vandana Shiva, environmental activist and Director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, said at a press conference here today that their teams which had visited some States where Bt cotton was sown had found that the claims made by Monsanto-Mahyco seed company that Bt. being an effective pest-resistant crop were false.

"We demand immediate withdrawal of the conditional clearance for commercial planting given by GEAC and for Monsanto-Mahyco to pay compensation to farmers whose crop has been damaged by pests and diseases,'' she said.

She said that commercial clearance was given to Bt. cotton on the grounds that it had been fully tested in Indian conditions, that it did not require pesticide sprays and it gave higher yields and the farmers would have higher incomes. "All claims have been found to be false by the total failure of the crop in States where it was cleared for planting including Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.''

The Agriculture Ministry should ban the commercial sales of Bt. cotton seeds since it had brought unknown risks to bio-diversity and higher costs to farmers with no benefits, she said, adding that a high-level commission of inquiry be set up with the participation of independent experts to assess the damage to farmers from failed Bt. cotton.

Divya Raghunandan from Greenpeace, an NGO working for environment safety, said tomorrow's GEAC meeting was important and that it should not be used to give commercial clearance to transgenic mustard.

Mustard was a high-risk crop — being a food crop, that it was completely "unethical" for GEAC to even consider releasing a GM version. "GM mustard is transformed with gene material drawn from a bacterial gene that detoxifies the broad spectrum herbicide glufosinate so that the plant is not affected by the herbicide. The transformation of several genes from different bacteria makes protein expressions and consumption of this modified food crop a huge potential risk.'' she said.

"The GM mustard has been made resistant to a herbicide called glufosinate. Both the GM mustard and the herbicide are the products of a multinational, Pro-Agro, which is killing two birds with one stone,'' Devinder Sharma of the Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security said. Clearance to GM mustard would promote only the industry's interests as it would necessitate the use of that specific herbicide — ``if you don't use this herbicide, you won't be able to control the weeds. ''

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