Regulation of Genetically modified crops in India

(MainsGS3:Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, Nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.)

Context:

• Recently, the Environment Ministry’s Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) cleared the proposal for the commercial cultivation of genetically modified (GM) mustard.
• The GEAC’s recommendation will again go to the Environment Ministry for approval as earlier the ministry vetoed the proposal in 2017.

About GEAC:

• The latest GEAC approval allows for the environmental release of two varieties of genetically engineered mustard for developing new parental lines and hybrids under the supervision of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR).
• The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) worked under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).
• It is responsible for the assessment of proposals related to the release of genetically engineered organisms and products into the environment, including experimental field trials.
• GEAC or people authorised by it have the power to take punitive actions under the Environment Protection Act.

About GM technology:

• GM is a technology that involves inserting DNA into the genome of an organism.
• The characteristics of all living organisms are determined by their genetic makeup and its interaction with the environment.
• The genetic makeup of an organism is its genome, which in all plants and animals is made of DNA.
• The genome contains genes, regions of DNA that usually carry the instructions for making proteins. It is these proteins that give the plant its characteristics. For example, the colour of flowers is determined by genes that carry the instructions for making proteins involved in producing the pigments that colour petals.
• Genetic modification of plants involves adding a specific stretch of DNA into the plant’s genome, giving it new or different characteristics.
• This could include changing the way the plant grows, or making it resistant to a particular disease.
• The new DNA becomes part of the GM plant’s genome which the seeds produced by these plants will contain.

Manipulate the crop:

• In crops, genetic modification involves the manipulation of DNA instead of using controlled pollination— the conventional method to improve crops— to alter certain characteristics of the crop.
• Soyabean, maize, cotton, and canola with herbicide tolerance and insect resistance are the most widely grown GM crops around the world.
• Other common genetically modified characteristics include virus resistance, drought resistance, and fruit and tuber quality.

Historical perspective:

• India’s history of crop modification using GM is one of test-plants finding their way to commercial cultivars before they were formally cleared.
• Thus, Bt-cotton was widely prevalent in farmer fields before being cleared.
• Though they have not been cleared, Bt-brinjal and herbicide-tolerant cotton varieties too have been detected in farmer fields.

Regulatory framework:

• Strict regulations are in place to control threats to animal health, human safety, and biodiversity at large during the processes of development, cultivation and transboundary movement of GM crops.

GM mustard:

• Dhara Mustard Hybrid (DMH -11) was developed by a team of scientists at Delhi University under a government-funded project.
• It uses a system of genes from soil bacterium that makes mustard — generally a self-pollinating plant — better suited to hybridisation than current methods.
• The GEAC cleared “the environmental release of mustard hybrid Dhara Mustard Hybrid (DMH-11) for its seed production and testing as per existing ICAR guidelines and other extant rules/regulations prior to commercial release”.