Status of transgenic crops in India

(MainsGS3:Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.)

Context:

• Recently, few states deferred a proposal, approved by the Centre’s Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), to test a new kind of transgenic cotton seed that contains a gene, Cry2Ai, that purportedly makes cotton resistant to pink bollworm, a major pest.

Need approvals from the States:

• The cotton seed has been developed by the Hyderabad-based Bioseed Research India with Cry2Ai which makes it resistant to pink bollworm. 
• The first generations of transgenic cotton had been developed to inure cotton against a more widespread pest called the American bollworm. 
• The Cry2Ai seed has passed preliminary, confined trials and was recommended by the GEAC to be tested in farmer’s fields at Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Haryana. 
• Agriculture being a State subject means that, in most cases, companies interested in testing their seeds need approvals from the States for conducting such tests.

Status of transgenic crops:

• Crops like brinjal, tomato, maize, chickpea are in various stages of trials that employ transgenic technology. 
• However, cotton remains the only transgenic crop that is being commercially cultivated in India. 
• After a long hiatus, the GEAC, the apex technical body charged with evaluating proposals for testing genetically modified (GM) seeds, approved the environmental release of Mustard hybrid DMH-11 and its parental lines for seed production and testing. 
• However, following the GEAC approval for DMH-11, the petitioners approached the Supreme Court asking for a stay on the release of the crop because it would encourage farmers to spray herbicides, which are banned in India. 

Regulating transgenic crops:

• The process of developing transgenic crops is an elaborate one as inserting transgenic genes into plants to elicit a sustained, protective response is a mix of both science and chance. 
• There are multiple safety assessments done by committees before they are cleared for further tests in open plots of land which are located at either agricultural universities or plots controlled by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR). 
• A transgenic plant can apply for commercial clearance, only after it has proven to be demonstrably better than comparable non-GM variants on claimed parameters (for instance, drought tolerance or insect resistance) without posing ecological harm to other species that may be being cultivated in the vicinity. 
• Open field trials often take place over multiple crop seasons and types of geographical conditions, to assess its suitability across different States.

Notified testing sites:

• Following the responses from states, the GEAC has asked the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the ICAR to “jointly organise capacity-building activities with regard to GM crops for appraising the State/UT Government(s) about the technology involved and the regulatory framework in place for evaluation of these GM crops.
• Further, to resolve the issue of States not following approvals on testing, because of differing attitudes to GM crops, the GEAC is considering a proposal by the DBT to declare some regions across India as ‘notified testing sites. 
• There are 42 such proposed sites and, if it goes through, companies and institutions wanting to conduct trials of GM crops at these locations won’t need the permission of States for trials.