Tag: GM crops

  • Ex-agriculture minister Pawar bats for GM crops to improve food security

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Former Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has made a strong pitch for use of genetically modified (GM) crops, saying ignoring advances in crop science could adversely affect the country’s food security.

    Delivering the Annasaheb Shinde Centenary Memorial lecture here on Wednesday, Pawar said even European nations, which were “vehemently opposed” to genetically engineered crops, have begun to change their views in the face of the food crisis presented by the Covid pandemic and the recent Ukraine-Russia war.

    “India lately became complacent and started neglecting the developments in science, particularly the new genetics and breeding,” said Pawar, who served as the Union agriculture minister from 2004 to 2014.

    Speaking at the event, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari called for changing cropping patterns to boost the production of oilseeds and keeping in mind the demands of the global economy.

    Pawar pointed out that India had not allowed the cultivation of genetically modified mustard in spite of the known success of the first biotech crop – GM cotton.

    “”What happens now is well known. We are importing edible oil worth Rs 80,000 crore annually, including the one produced from GM soybean and mustard,” Pawar said, making a strong pitch for use of science to increase food production. “We were self-sufficient and hence could afford drawing room suggestions on how food could be produced. Even the so-called elitists with little or no background of agriculture science offered advice on research and development,”” the NCP chief said.

    “The activism emerged to oppose everything, which is linked to genetic progress and even dictated the policy agenda of the government,” Pawar said.

    He also slammed the government for the flip-flop on the policy of agricultural exports at a time when the world was looking towards India to address issues of food security.

    Pawar pointed out that Britain recently introduced the genetic technology (precision breeding) bill in their parliament to cut red tape and support the development of innovative technologies to grow more nutritious and productive crops in the wake of climate change.

    He said recently countries such as Australia, Canada, and Brazil that had earlier opposed genetically altered crops were embracing such technologies to address issues related to food security.

    He credited Annasaheb Shinde, the Deputy Minister for Agriculture, for encouraging the use of technology for better crops in the 1960s which made India self-sufficient in food production.

    NEW DELHI: Former Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has made a strong pitch for use of genetically modified (GM) crops, saying ignoring advances in crop science could adversely affect the country’s food security.

    Delivering the Annasaheb Shinde Centenary Memorial lecture here on Wednesday, Pawar said even European nations, which were “vehemently opposed” to genetically engineered crops, have begun to change their views in the face of the food crisis presented by the Covid pandemic and the recent Ukraine-Russia war.

    “India lately became complacent and started neglecting the developments in science, particularly the new genetics and breeding,” said Pawar, who served as the Union agriculture minister from 2004 to 2014.

    Speaking at the event, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari called for changing cropping patterns to boost the production of oilseeds and keeping in mind the demands of the global economy.

    Pawar pointed out that India had not allowed the cultivation of genetically modified mustard in spite of the known success of the first biotech crop – GM cotton.

    “”What happens now is well known. We are importing edible oil worth Rs 80,000 crore annually, including the one produced from GM soybean and mustard,” Pawar said, making a strong pitch for use of science to increase food production. “We were self-sufficient and hence could afford drawing room suggestions on how food could be produced. Even the so-called elitists with little or no background of agriculture science offered advice on research and development,”” the NCP chief said.

    “The activism emerged to oppose everything, which is linked to genetic progress and even dictated the policy agenda of the government,” Pawar said.

    He also slammed the government for the flip-flop on the policy of agricultural exports at a time when the world was looking towards India to address issues of food security.

    Pawar pointed out that Britain recently introduced the genetic technology (precision breeding) bill in their parliament to cut red tape and support the development of innovative technologies to grow more nutritious and productive crops in the wake of climate change.

    He said recently countries such as Australia, Canada, and Brazil that had earlier opposed genetically altered crops were embracing such technologies to address issues related to food security.

    He credited Annasaheb Shinde, the Deputy Minister for Agriculture, for encouraging the use of technology for better crops in the 1960s which made India self-sufficient in food production.

  • Farmer bodies urge Centre to curb genetically modified crop cultivation

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: A group of farmer organisations on Friday wrote to the union environment ministry’s expert committee on genetically modified (GM) crops, asking it to immediately ensure that no illegal cultivation of such crops takes place in violation of existing rules and norms.

    The coalition for a GM-free India said that illegal planting of crops like GM brinjal is being undertaken, in a brazenly challenging manner at that, in Maharashtra. “We urge the apex regulatory body Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) to immediately ensure that no such illegal cultivation takes place, that too in open violation of the legal regime on the matter,” it said.

    The organisations added it will be important for GEAC to take up not just the immediate destruction of the said plots, but event-specific testing of samples collected in each of these cases, to ensure that the seed supply system is traced properly and event developers as well as seed suppliers are held liable.

    Anil Ghanwat, president of Shetkari Sanghatana (SS), had said that farmers are cultivating herbicide-tolerant Bt cotton and Bt brinjal and would soon start field trials on other GM crops including maize, soya and papaya.

    The Central government had announced in the Rajya Sabha that proposals for field trials of GM crops, including Bt brinjal, will not be taken up for consideration in the GEAC without the recommendation of the concerned state government.

    A moratorium was imposed on the commercial release of any GM crop in 2010. Right wing farmer organisation, Bhartiya Kisan Sangh, recently wrote to state governments to not give ‘No Objection Certificate’ for bio-safety field trials of Bt brinjal.