Eminent agriculture scientist MS Swaminathan has said it is not right to put the entire blame on the GM (genetically modified) crops for the farm distress in the country.

He said it is one of the several factors that affect the farm sector and requires a different approach to tackle it.

“I am not defending anything but putting the entire blame on GM crops would be oversimplifying the fundamental problem of farm distress. The Government has set up a mechanism to look into the concerns on the GM issue,” he said.

“There are conventional methods available to identify a gene. Before you go for GM method, you must ask yourself whether you could achieve the same result using the conventional methods,” he said.

Swaminathan, who was here on Tuesday to inaugurate 100th Foundation Course of Agricultural Research Services at the National Academy of Agricultural Research, told Business Line that the Governments could waive loans if they could afford to do so. “It is a political decision. But what must they do is to put money in areas that would help farmers improve their income. There is a huge mismatch between the production and post-harvest technologies. They should build infrastructure such as cold storages,” he said.

He said the Government is setting up a Genetic Garden at Kandahar in Afghanistan and a Rice BioPark UN Myanmar.

“Efforts like these require specially qualified scientists to help other developing countries. It’s time for ICAR to establish International Agricultural Research Services,” he said.

Similarly, the ICAR should start a sub-cadre to take care of special needs of agriculture in North-Eastern States, he said.

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