90% of India cotton farmers use biotech, need unified voice

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The Hindu BusinessLine speaks with Shilpa Divekar Nirula, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of farm input company Monsanto’s India operations at a time when the Government is debating on whether or not to allow controlled field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops.

What is the status of trials in India?

We are given to understand that the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee has started meeting again. It is important to continue trialing process because otherwise we won’t know if any of these products meet the requirements of our farmers in our conditions. In agriculture, every season is so unique and it is important to have variety of data in all types of conditions.

But we also understand that every Government needs to follow a process. So it’s important to be patient. We remain hopeful that the trailing process should go on.

Are you launching any new products in India?

We are working on next stage of insect-tolerant and herbicide-tolerant technology. India has strong regulatory systems and we are in different stages of regulatory process with next generation cotton and corn technology. So we will go commercial as and when we get the approvals.

How do you deal with all controversies and opposition to GM crops?

I think there is opportunity for those involved in experiencing the benefits of technology to share their experience. Every technology goes through rigorous testing and there are enough studies from around the world.

When it comes to specific voices (who oppose) there is an opportunity to clarify even more by people like us. Of the eight million cotton farmers in India, 90 per cent use these technologies. But there is no unified voice that comes out. There are outstanding stories out there on the success of these technologies. There is no way to channelise these voices as opposed to a few opposing voices that perpetuate a view point.

Read full original article: We want to be an ‘effective advisory’ for farmers

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