GM Crops Policies: Perspectives from India. Presented during the interaction with Semester At Sea Students of 2014 batch. The slides present the policy issues and the debates in India especially the role of regulator in bio safety

1. GM Crops Policies:
Perspectives from India
Dr. D Dhanuraj
Chairman, CPPR

2. India in the globe
• 2.3% of Global Land
• 4.2% of Water Resources
• 16.8% of Population
GM Crops Policies: Perspectives from India 2

3. Agriculture in India
• 60% of population’s occupation
• Contributes 18% of Gross Domestic Product
(GDP)
• Second highest producer of Wheat and Rice
• Highest producer of many fruits
• Around 25 million hectares of land in the
country has low productivity of less than 1
tonne/hectare due to deficiencies and
toxicities of nutrients
GM Crops Policies: Perspectives from India 3

4. Future of Agriculture in India
• Studies show 40% farmers would switch over
to another job.
• NSS report shows number of total agriculture
workers went down from 40.03 million in
2004-05 to 36.9 million in 2009-10 and 35.4
million in 2011-12
GM Crops Policies: Perspectives from India 4

5. Issues in Agriculture
• The present cropping intensity of 136% has
registered increase of only 25% since
Independence. Rain-fed dry land constitutes
65% of the total net sown area. There is also
an unprecedented degradation of land (107
million hectare) and groundwater resource,
and also fall in growth rate of total factor
productivity.
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6. GM Crops in India
• Bt Cotton
• Bt Brinjal
GM Crops Policies: Perspectives from India 6

7. Bt Cotton
• Cultivation of Bt Cotton was allowed in 2002.
– India has become a net exporter of Cotton in the
last one decade
– 90% of total cotton cultivation area is covered by
Bt Cotton
– Yield is more than 80% compared to non-Bt
Cotton.
– More than 600 hybrid seeds are in circulation now
GM Crops Policies: Perspectives from India 7

8. Bt Cotton production in India
over the years

11. Protests
• Three public interest litigations (PILs) have
been filed since 2002
– Research Foundation for Science, Technology and
Ecology headed by environmentalist Vandana
Shiva,
– in 2004 by Suman Sahai's Gene Campaign
– in 2006 by a group of food and environmental
activists led by Aruna Rodrigues.
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12. Milestones
• India is a signatory to the Cartagena Protocol on
Biosafety (CPB) since 2003
• India's apex biotech regulatory committee, the
Genetic Engineering Approval Committee
(GEAC) that functions as a statutory body under the
Environment Protection Act 1986 of the Ministry of
Environment & Forests (MoEF), has been changed to
Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee on July 22,
2010
GM Crops Policies: Perspectives from India 12

13. GEAC
– GEAC comprised almost 30 members including
independent experts, representatives from India’s
premier science and biotechnology bodies such as
the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research,
ICAR, department of biotechnology, officials from
the directorate of plant protection, quarantine &
storage and the department of industrial policy
and promotion
– But currently, the role of GEAC has been taken up
by other committees which are not representative
GM Crops Policies: Perspectives from India 13

14. Milestones
Technical Expert Committee (TEC) set up by the
Supreme Court has in their final report
submitted on 30 June 2013,pointed to the
scientific evidences for adverse impacts of GM
crops and the inefficiencies in the current
regulatory system
GM Crops Policies: Perspectives from India 14
Put on hold the clearances of open
GM field trials for cotton, rice, maize
and wheat given by the GEAC
Moratorium on Bt Brinjal was announced
in 2010.

15. Milestones
• GEAC’s year-old decision to permit field trials
of crops such as rice, wheat and maize has
been approved – February 27, 2014
• Next meeting scheduled on 21st March 2014
GM Crops Policies: Perspectives from India 15

16. Recent Developments
• Mark Lynas, proponent for transgenics, may have
flamboyantly declared that the debate on genetically
modified (GM) crops is over but he has actually re-
ignited the debate, through his supposed conversion
from an anti-GM activism is two years old
• National Biotechnology Regulatory bill (2008) which
was renamed as Biotechnology Regulatory Authority
of India bill (2009) — to bulldoze dissent against GM
Crops was proposed
• Tabled on April 22nd 2013
• Still pending in Parliament
GM Crops Policies: Perspectives from India 16

17. Biotechnology Regulatory Authority
of India (BRAI) Bill
• The TEC recommends that the regulatory body be located
in the MoEF and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The BRAI under the MoST will clearly result in a conflict of
interest.
• ‘Polluters pay principle’
• ‘Absolute liability’
• ‘Precautionary Principle’
• Role of State Governments and PRI institutions
• Kavitha Kuruganti of the Coalition for a GM-Free India:
“The BRAI Bill is a blatant attempt to bulldoze through the
public resistance and genuine concerns about genetically
modified crops, and to deny state governments their
constitutional authority over Agriculture and Health,”
GM Crops Policies: Perspectives from India 17

18. BRAI
• Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture
– consulted all stakeholders and
– examined the BRAI Bill against the standard regulatory
frameworks elsewhere in the world.
• It observed that "regulating biotechnology is too
small a focus in the vast canvas of biodiversity,
environment, human and livestock health, etc
and a multitude of other such related issues".
GM Crops Policies: Perspectives from India 18

19. Global Scene
• In 2012, 170 million hectares of land, around 12%
of the global arable land, was planted with GM
crops of soybean, corn, cotton and canola in 28
countries.
• United States of America planted the largest area,
69.5 million hectares, while Brazil showed highest
increase in area planted with biotech crops (6.3
million hectares). India planted 10.8 million
hectares of Bt cotton and the farm income from
2002 to 2011 was 12.6 billion dollars
GM Crops Policies: Perspectives from India 19

20. GM Crops Policies: Perspectives from India 20

21. Stake involved in India
• Largest biotech research programme in the developing
world with as many 14 public sector laboratories carrying
out research on virtually every crop from groundnuts and
beans to melons and cauliflower. It's part of a long-term
strategy to generate employment of one million and
revenues of $5 billion from the biotechnology sector)
• Lack of a policy on genetic engineering in crops for which
India is a centre of origin. The list starts with rice and
includes legumes (moong and urad), vegetables (eggplant,
okra, bottle gourd) and fruits (mango, melons).
GM Crops Policies: Perspectives from India 21

22. Arguments against GM crops
• “science-based agro-ecological methods are
participatory in nature and designed to fit within the
dynamics underpinning the multifunctional role of
agriculture in producing food, enhancing biodiversity
and ecosystem services, and providing security to
communities”
– ‘Late Lessons from Early Warnings: Science, Precaution, Innovation’
published by European Environmental Agency
• “might result in unintended phenotypic changes”
• Resistance to pesticides, insecticides and herbicides
• Why most countries do not allow GM varieties of crops
to which they are centres of origin: Mexico for corn,
China for soyabean, Peru for potato, etc.
GM Crops Policies: Perspectives from India 22

23. GM crops
• GM crops have erroneously been listed among the hazardous
substances under the Environment Protection Act, 1986,
thereby projecting them as inherently harmful.
• This creates unwarranted misperceptions about these crops
and raises misgivings over their safety for health and
environment.
• The rules framed under the environment law are enforced
through an administrative order without any legislative
sanction.
• This leaves them open to change at any time.
• This weak point allowed the Ministry to take over GM crop
approval authority, overrule the permission granted to Bt
Brinjal by the GEAC, and put an indefinite pause on field trials
of GM crops.
GM Crops Policies: Perspectives from India 23

24. Policy Issues
• A glaring dichotomy between the powers of
the Centre and states over regulating GM
crops and permitting their experimentation or
cultivation in open fields.
• While the regulatory mechanism is under the
control of the Union environment ministry,
the broad field of agriculture is a state subject.
This leads to Centre-state conflicts in decision-
making.
GM Crops Policies: Perspectives from India 24

25. Policy Issues
1. A blanket ban of 10 years on field trials of transgenic
food crops;
2. A blanket ban on field trials of transgenic varieties of
those crops for which India is a centre of origin or
diversity; and
3. its presumption of a conflict of interest between
regulatory and developmental roles.
• Indian companies (Public sector) Vs Multinationals -
GM mustard hybrid from Delhi University’s
Department of Genetics and a late blight disease-
resistant potato developed by the Central Potato
Research Institute near Shimla
GM Crops Policies: Perspectives from India 25

26. Other Issues and Challenges
• Inability, incapability and unpreparedness of
the Indian GM research establishment and the
incompetency of our regulator to deal with
this unpredictable and uncontrollable
technology.
• Contamination from GM crops is inevitable
and that our regulator does not have the
capacity to deal with it.
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27. Suggestion
• A new Authority that is immune to political
interventions or external pressures. Besides,
the system should be competent and fully
authorized to take unbiased and science-
based decisions
GM Crops Policies: Perspectives from India 27

28. Conclusion
• Passage of BRAI Bill with suggested
amendments.
• Set up a regulator that is independent,
transparent, inclusive and that protects
biosafety before the environmental release of
GM crops.
• Leave the decision making to the scientists.
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29. Thank you!
Email: dhanu@cppr.in
www.cppr.in
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