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With the Union Ministry of Environment expected to take a call on genetically-modified (GM) mustard soon, activists, including RSS-affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), are once again questioning the justification of allowing the transgenic crop.
Harsh Vardhan, the new Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, is expected to take a call on the crop soon, even as a case calling for a moratorium on the crop is pending in the Supreme Court.
On the basis of the government’s reply in the Supreme Court, anti-GM activists have been questioning the justification of introducing a transgenic crop if it does not give increased yield.
No rise in yield “No such claim has been made in any of the submitted documents that DMH 11 (the variant in question) outperforms non-GMO hybrids. The comparison has only been made between hybrid DMH 11, NC (national check) Varuna and the appropriate zonal checks,” the government had told the apex court. SJM, a vocal opponent of the transgenic crop, has shot off a letter to the Prime Minister. “We have written a letter to the Prime Minister to inform him of the scientific, agronomical and biosafety fraud of this Bayer GM Mustard. We know the PM will listen to our request and act in the interest of Indians,” said Ashwani Mahajan, National Co-Convenor, SJM.
‘No justification’ Environmentalist Vandana Shiva claimed that the existing hybrid varieties of mustard gave yields comparable to the GM crop under question.
Parth Sardhi, Delhi university professor of Environmental Studies, who was described as the ‘developer of India’s first GM Mustard’ said: “The Bayer Mustard has no agronomic benefits over non-GE hybrids/varieties, there is no reason to jeopardise the security of India’s farming and food, human health and of critical importance, the nation’s wealth of biodiversity, the contamination of which will be irreversible, by releasing HT mustard hybrid DMH-11.
The anti-GM activist groups have received support from some prominent names in scientific circles, such as Sardhi and Pushpa Bharghav, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, who was also a member of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee.
Even though claims of toxicity from GM crops have been refuted by several scientific studies, activists continue to question the need for introducing a transgenic crop that could contaminate the non-GM lines of the crops in the long run. Especially, considering the negligible yield increase.
Further, the new GM Mustard is herbicide tolerant, which has become a point of concern for activists. Studies show that farmers tend to use only one kind of herbicides with such tolerant plants, potentially forcing farmers into buying the chemicals from a select few companies.
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