EVENTS & ISSUES

New Delhi, 19 January 2009

Introduction of Bt Brinjal

WILL IT OUTGROW THE CONTROVERSY?

By Radhakrishna Rao

Silently and quite efficiently, efforts are on to introduce a genetically-engineered version of brinjal, a popular and widely-consumed vegetable that figures prominently on meal menus across regions and social classes, even as the controversy over the poor performance of the Bt.cotton introduced earlier continues to be in focus.

As social activists, environmental researchers and a section of the agricultural scientists point out, it is for the first time that a genetically modified vegetable is being permitted to go through the field trials without studying the pros and cons of introducing a vegetable carrying an alien genetic material. For the current scientific literature on the effect of GM (genetically modified) food on human health is not sure and clear about the nature and extent of the effect exerted by the genetically engineered food on the human well being.

Everything is going as planned and Bt.brinjal is expected to hit the market in a year’s time. But then what gives an ominous tone to the introduction of Bt.brinjal is the recent scientific study in Australia, which says that consumption of GM food could be one of the contributing factors to the increasing incidence of infertility.

In Europe, where there is a strong public opinion against the GM food, US agrochemical giants have not been able to make much headway in promoting their genetically engineered food products. For instance, in Switzerland, the moratorium on introducing genetically engineered food   was extended on public demand. In Italy and Austria, government-funded studies have gone to show adverse impact of growing and consuming GM food.  

Scientists at the Hyderabad-based Centre for Sustainable Agriculture wonder why there are no independent studies aimed at evaluating the impact of GM food from a variety of angles or an effort at labeling GM food products in India. Not labeling the products would imply that consumers will be left with no choice in so far as picking the food products is concerned.

Significantly, the research and field studies for the development of Bt.brinjal is done in Bangalore and Dharwad in Karnataka. Meanwhile, reports appearing in a section of the media point out that Maharastra Hybrid Seed Company(Mahyco),  which is the Indian marketing arm for the US agrochemical and biotechnology giant Monsanto, has already received approval for the seed production  of Bt.brinjal. However, the claim that Bt.brinjal would help end poverty is being questioned by experts familiar with the GM crops. Experience with Bt.cotton has already gone to show that with a heavy input cost including the purchase of seeds every sowing season, the farmer stands to gain little.

A fear expressed by some experts is that Bt.brinjal, which is engineered by the introduction of a gene from soil bacterium with a view to insulate it against the shoot and fruit borer, could prove an environmental hazard in the long run. Besides, there are a number of local and high- yielding varieties such as Pusa Kranti and Pusa Navkiran brought out by New Delhi-based Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) which are quite popular with farmers. So the big question is: why the need for Bt.brinjal? The answer could be that brinjal is also an important ingredient in some of the ayurvedic preparations.

Meanwhile, Mahyco has been charged with impropriety while going through the animal study aimed at assessing the impact of Bt.brinjal. There is an apprehension that Cry IAc gene isolated from the soil bacterium and introduced into brinjal could have negative impact on the human system. Moreover, no cost benefit analysis of going in for Bt.brinjal cultivation has been carried out so far. As pointed out it is also important to investigate the cost benefit ratio for the farmers to arrive at a valid conclusion as to whether or not the new technology is economically viable.

With the Bt.cotton under cultivation for a couple of years already facing pest infestation, there is an apprehension that Bt.brijal too may become vulnerable to the pest attack.  In this context, the ICAR has already developed technology for non-chemical management of brinjal. Pest management is possible without chemical pesticides. Also, it’s ridiculous to suggest that an increase in brinjal production can address the issue of poverty. And the long term fall outs of consuming GM food are not yet fully understood.

Incidentally, field studies have shown that pest resistance to Bt.cotton was witnessed in some parts of the country in the very first year of the planting. Similarly, scientific evaluation of the GM crops has shown that their cultivation has increased the incidence of some fungi and secondary pests, which were not a major problem earlier. Similarly, the pollen grains from GM crops planted in one field can adversely affect the non GM crops in the adjoining fields.

Sometime last year, Balsaheb Thorat, the Maharastra Minister for Agriculture had stated that Bt cotton was a failure in Vidarbha, once considered the cotton belt of India. And accordingly some analysts feel that Bt.cotton amounts to pushing farmers into a veritable booby trap. As per an official report of Andhra Pradesh Government on the performance of Bt.cotton in 2002—the first year of its commercialization—in North Telangana region the net income from Bt.varieties was lot more less that income generated from the local non Bt.varieties.

Similarly, an in-depth article carried in Current Science says that India’s Bt.cotton technology is faulty and will fail to protect against the widespread menace of bollworm infestation. The article based on an extensive field study carried out by the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR) says that because Bt.toxin expression is lower than the required level, the threat of bollworm infestation continues to loom large. Moreover, the bollworm is not susceptible to Cry IAc toxin exuded by Bt.cotton. Moreover, this study says that the poor performance and less than expected yield of Bt.cotton in India is mainly due to the fact that it is being produced as hybrid containing only one copy of the Bt.gene as against the two copies of the Bt.gene.

Even as the opposition to GM food products continues to persist, Monsanto is working on developing genetically-engineered versions of corn and soyabean. These varieties are known to be resistant to drought and insects. Moreover, they are claimed to give best value to the farmers developing high-yielding GM varieties that can be grown under water stress conditions with low production cost to be the biggest challenge of the next decade. Let’s wait and watch if the claim is proved right.---INFA

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