The Hindu : Transgenic crops and approval

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 19, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

Transgenic crops and approval

NEWS THAT A second seed company has been officially permitted to carry out large-scale field trials of Bt Cotton may seem as if some momentum is being generated on the sluggish agro-biotechnology front. Far from it. By asking Rasi Seeds to conduct trials on one lakh acres in the southern and the central parts of the country, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has once again demonstrated a wearisome attitude of getting involved in issues that go beyond its principal mandate — that is, ensuring environmental safety. The Tamil Nadu-based company's RCH 2 Bt cotton uses the same gene (Cry1Ac) used by Mahyco in its transgenic cotton variety, which has been tested extensively for biosafety and been granted permission for commercialisation. If further trials must be conducted by Rasi Seeds, then these must be to settle issues that go beyond biosafety — possibly, the agronomic value or the economic viability of the new hybrids. Rather than allow the market to determine such issues, the GEAC has shown a tendency to get entangled with them. For instance, Mahyco's approval for commercialisation of Bt cotton was delayed by a whole year largely because of certain agronomic questions. And earlier this year, Mahyco's Mech 915 Bt cotton variety failed to win approval because of susceptibility to the leaf curl virus, a reason totally unconnected to Bt technology, which is meant to protect the cotton crop from only the bollworm.

One of the direct consequences of excessive red tapism and a tardy and unhelpful approval process has been the rampant and unchecked manufacture of unapproved Bt cotton seeds. Sale of such seeds has become so commonplace in Gujarat that illegal Bt cotton blooms in the cotton-growing regions of the State. It was two years ago that the manufacture and sale of illegal transgenic cotton seeds (Navbharat 151) came to official notice. Ironically, all that has resulted from promises of launching a search and destroy operation against this single variant is the proliferation of vast numbers of Bt hybrids, which now dot Gujarat's cottonscape. The GEAC's declaration that it will bring this to the attention of the State Government is akin to closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. The most effective way of shutting out the illegal (and potentially dangerous) manufacture of transgenic seeds is to ensure that the regulatory process works quickly, effectively and transparently and the GEAC, a widely-represented body under the Environment Ministry, has not performed satisfactorily on any of these counts.

Given its track record, the GEAC's decision on the Rasi Seeds hybrids was not unexpected. But another piece of news from the biotechnology front was, to say the least, very surprising. The announcement by the Secretary of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) that a genetically modified potato, which contains more protein and other essential nutrients, will receive approval in six months has raised many eyebrows. With the final approving authority, namely the GEAC, not even having been approached yet, the so-called `prorato' is nowhere even near reaching the final stages of regulatory approval. The transgenic potato, which has been developed by a team of Indian scientists by importing a gene from the amaranth plant, has already completed over two years of limited field trials. Although the results are reported to be extremely encouraging, suggesting that the nutritionally enhanced potato will start supplementing the diet of India's poor by early next year, it implies an extremely speedy schedule of evaluation on toxicological, nutritional, allergenicity and other fronts. Approval within such a time-frame would also mean short-circuiting the large-scale field trials and on what ground these may be done away with is not clear. In the absence of specific clarifications, it is impossible to predict whether the prorato will be on Indian dining tables as quickly as the head of the DBT suggested.

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