The Hindu Business Line : Does India need Bt brinjal?

File picture of activists demonstrating with brinjals before the State Assembly in Bhubaneswar, demanding organic cultivation be encouraged instead of introducing Bt strains.

K. P. Prabhakaran Nair

On September 16, at the same time that Greenpeace was holding a protest against Bt brinjal, outside Krishi Bhavan, the ICAR Director-General was making a strong plea for genetically modified (GM) crops.

His argument “It takes 3,000 litres of water to produce a kg of rice, which GM rice will never need” looked simple on the surface and he buttressed his argument by saying that GM crops yielded more, had “resistance” and conc luded: “Whether we like it or not, GM crops are here to stay”.

These two positions — that of the activists of Greenpeace and of the Director-General of ICAR — are at the extreme poles of a very contentious issue, which has come at a time when the country is passing through the worst agricultural crisis in its history. Plummeting food-grains production, huge wheat imports in succession and, to cap it all, unending farmer suicides.

Let us take the question of the current controversy on Bt brinjal.

Legal background

On September 22, 2006, in response to a public interest litigation (PIL), the Supreme Court passed an order that the entire question of field-testing and approval of GM crops should be handled by competent, and committed bodies/scientists. The question before the court was with regard to Bt brinjal, which an MNC, through its Indian subsidiary, was promoting.

Accordingly, an independent committee was constituted by the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture in Hyderabad, which had some of the leading toxicologists, plant physiologists, entomologists, agronomists and economists of the country, supported by field activists, with this author as its chairman.

The committee submitted its report, examining the field data provided by the Indian subsidiary of the MNC from all aspects — bio-safety protocols to marketing of the end-product — to the Supreme Court in October.

Since then, the Union of India has been seeking modification of the order passed by the Supreme Court on September 22, wherein the court had directed the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) to withhold approvals till further instructions to be issued by the court on hearing all concerned. In the May 8, 2007 hearing that followed, the Additional Solicitor-General submitted that in view of the order passed by the Supreme Court, the GEAC was not in a position to grant approval to various applications pending with the authority, for field trials on various plant varieties. The GEAC, between May and September 2006, had granted approval for 24 items, including Bt cotton, Bt cauliflower, Bt brinjal, Bt rice, transgenic rice, Bt castor, Bt groundnut, transgenic tomato and potato. The field trials are going on in respect of these items.

The May 8 Supreme Court order specifically states that:

The GEAC shall take sufficient precautions to see that these trials do not cause any contamination to neighbouring fields.

There should be at least 200 m distance between trial fields and the neighbouring ones, where the same type of crop is being grown.

In all the trials, the name of the scientist and other details of the person responsible should be reported to the GEAC and there should be regular supervision.

Prior to bringing out the GM material from the green-house to the field, for open field trials, the approved institution should submit a validated, specific test protocol at an LoD (Level of Detection) of at least 0.01 per cent (that is at 99.99 confidence level in statistical parlance) to detect and confirm that there has been no contamination.

The reality on the field

The independent expert committee cited instances of scientific inaccuracy in data reporting, breach of scientific protocols and improper reporting of allerginicity and toxicity, in the field data provided by the Indian subsidiary of the MNC on Bt brinjal.

The manner in which these field trials are being conducted leaves much to be desired. Farmers are being tricked into accepting GM material for field testing without being made aware of the possible adverse consequences.

Experience in ‘cotton bowl’

A few months ago, Mr Balasaheb Thorat, the Maharashtra Minister for Agriculture, went on record that Bt cotton was a failure in the Vidarbha district, the cotton “bowl” of India and, yet, why is the Government of India pushing so many new strains of the crop?

The MNC that introduced the first Bt cotton in India three years ago was selling a 450-gm packet for Rs 1,950, while the same MNC was selling it for under $2 (less than Rs 90 at the time) in China. Can there be a worse instance of fleecing poor farmers?

Breach of scientific protocol

The independent expert committee noted the following breach of scientific protocols in collecting field data on Bt brinjal by the Indian subsidiary of the MNC:

The allerginicity of the protein extract from the Bt brinjal was apparently carried out on brown Norway rats and not on male rabbits as prescribed by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT).

DBT guidelines prescribe in vivo immunological assays for the detection of reactogenic antibodies in the test sera. These were allegedly not carried out.

Though the Cry 1Ac gene was earlier considered innocuous, recent published evidence indicates that the specific protein from Bacillus thurengiensis (Bt) is a potent systemic and mucosal adjuvant that enhances mostly serum and intestinal IgG antibody responses.

There is apparently conclusive evidence to show that root exudates of GM crops alter the soil microflora profile, negatively impacting soil productivity.

The field data was not statistically analysed for precise scientific interpretation, and, as such, the conclusions are invalid. No cost-benefit ratio for the farmer was calculated to examine whether or not the new technology is economically viable.

Circumventing SC Order

In response to public outcry against clandestine cultivation of GM crops — farmers of Karnal in Haryana and Ramanathapuram village in Coimbatore district burnt Bt rice fields —– the move by the GEAC to legitimise these field trials by requiring them to be conducted in institutional premises is most curious as this does not forestall the possibility of transgenic contamination.

Our farms and fields are not put to monoculture as in the US, the UK or Canada. Even in the UK, the recent reporting of super-weeds near GM rape-fields shows that the risks of pollen transfer leading to the breeding of unwanted plants cannot be wished away, as the protagonists of GM technology are doing.

Larger picture

The introduction of Bt brinjal in India calls for a ‘holistic’ approach, rather than a ‘reductionist’ one, as brinjal is a favourite vegetable of India that figures on meal menus across regions and social classes.

India is the place of origin of this interesting vegetable, which finds its way into the popular kathirikai poriyal of Tamil Nadu, vazhuthinanga thoran/upperi of Kerala, the badnekai sambar of Karnataka and the baingan ka bharta of North India — and has made its way to kitchens in the US, the UK, Canada and Europe.

The next time you polish off these delicacies, would you want to eat them with the fear of ingesting the Bt toxin as well?

Are we risking the health of millions of Indians when published scientific data, as of now, is ambiguous about the safety of GM food crops?

A small nation, such as Mexico, had the courage to say ‘No’ to GM maize. Yet, India is issuing a ‘blank cheque’ for any GM crop, be it brinjal, which originated here, or rice, in which India has a tremendous export stake.

Are we being pushed to do this, and if so, by whom?

(The author, a former Professor of the National Science Foundation, The Royal Society, Belgium, is Chairman of the Independent Expert Committee constituted to look into various aspects of Bt brinjal and can be reached at kodothprabhakaran@yahoo.co.in)

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Divided realities in world-class cities

Food versus fuel: The emerging debate

FDI priorities

Does India need Bt brinjal?

Making a point

‘Higher rupee both problem and opportunity for exporters’

Out with the tyranny of secrecy

Rupee appreciation