The Hindu Business Line : How safe are our seeds?

India has “donated” seeds to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, yet it has not officially deposited any for safe-keeping! Here’s the story. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV) opened officially on February 26 on the Svalbard Island between Norway and the North Pole. It is referred to as a Doomsday facility or ultimate safety net for storing back-ups of the world’s seed collections in the Arctic permafrost.

The ‘donation’

The Secretary, National Biodiversity Authority, received a letter from Ms Alka Ahuja, Under Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Ministry of Agriculture, New Delhi dated June 19 on a proposal for carrying five varieties of seeds of rice and wheat by the Minister of Science, Technology and Earth Science, Mr Kapil Sibal, to be “donated” to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Norway.

A July 1 press release of the Science and Technology Ministry itself tells us that the Minister “deposited five varieties of Indian seeds, namely IR-36 and IR-64 (of rice) and Lerma Rojo, Sonoro-64 and Ridley (of wheat).”

Regulator’s role

The National Biodiversity Authority is the apex body whose permission needs to be sought before any Indian genetic material, such as the varieties mentioned above, is to be transferred outside the country. The very reason for setting up a regulatory mechanism under the Biodiversity Act is for the country can keep track of its “biological resources.”

Given this background what does a “symbolic deposit” by a Minister into the vault without any “approval” really mean? Was it an act of simply carrying a bouquet of flowers to a grand party? Is this how lightly we are going to treat our biological treasures? Especially at a time when they are viewed as important genetic resources and legal battles are being fought over their control.

Saving the hybrids

But there is a further twist here; after all, if we really wanted to save our seeds, then we would have to save an Indian original, right? Not hybrid varieties grown across Asia!

It is interesting to note that amongst our “donation” to the vault is the Dr Khush-developed IR-36, a semi-dwarf variety or the HYV IR-64 variety of rice and wheat varieties such as Lerma Rojo, Sonoro-64 associated with the “Green Revolution” in agriculture.

No pact

At the same time, there is no evidence of the “Standard Agreement between the Depositor and the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food” having been signed by the Government of India or any of its agricultural institutes, which too is a requirement before such deposits.

And while we are at it, India still does not have a depositor institute listed on the site of the Vault through which, as per due procedure, such deposits are to be accepted. Yes, Icrisat (International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics), an international agricultural research institute and one of the 15 CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) centres, which has a gene bank in India, is to send its germplasm collections to the Vault. But we have read in print that the Government had told Icrisat not to deposit any Indian material into the Vault. So, was this “donation” done for publicity or diplomacy?

Prior approval

As mentioned earlier, the approval of the National Biodiversity Authority is required for any of India’s genetic material leaving the country.

Therefore, for approval of the above proposal on carrying five varieties of seeds to Norway by the Indian Minister for Science and Technology, the Authority’s Chairman proposed a special meeting of the Authority, invoking special provisions of the Biodiversity Rules (Rule 10 (2) wherein such a meeting can be called upon written request from not less than five members of the Authority, or upon a direction of the Central Government.

The proposal was put up to the nodal ministry for approval — the Ministry of Environment and Forests. In a letter dated June 20, 2008, the Authority was “informed” by the Ministry that in accordance with Section 3 of the Biological Diversity Act, approval of the Authority is not required in this particular case.

This matter was shared at the 12th meeting of the Authority on August 7 as an FYI (for your information) item, Agenda Item No.7.

Let us now take a closer look at the text of Section 3, which clearly states that no foreigner or foreign institute shall, without previous approval of the National Biodiversity Authority, obtain any biological resource occurring in India or knowledge associated thereto for research or for commercial utilisation or for bio-survey and bio-utilisation. There is an exemption to this clause only in case of a collaborative research project.

But then here is the loophole in the language of the legislation. The Indian Minister is not a foreigner, and the seeds being transferred is also not planting material being used for “research”, or being “commercialised”, etc.

They are simply being taken away to be put away in a deep freeze. So, apparently, such situations are not even envisaged by the law. This then says something about the Indian Biological Diversity Act, 2002 itself.

No say for farmers

Also, obviously, the biodiversity regulatory regime does not give the farmers of the country a say on whether they would have so liked to “donate”/“deposit” their material. Already, several campaigns have pointed to the inadequate provisions for “prior informed consent” of local communities in the biodiversity legislation.

The situation also points to how much say the National Biodiversity Authority has vis-À-vis its overseeing Ministry. The very custodian of biological resources gets its instructions from the Central Government. Meanwhile, our biological material is not safe from Ministers at home. It’s not even safe in a safe far away from home!

(Shalini Bhutani works with GRAIN and Kanchi Kohli is member, Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group. blfeedback@thehindu.co.in)

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