It can increase yield by a third, and put up to Rs 500 crore ($150 million) in farmers’ pockets. However, it is facing the same challenges that Bt brinjal did five years ago.
People who fear that genetically engineered crops are not healthy or will harm them in some way are either misguided or mischievous,” says Deepak Pental…at the Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants (CGMCP).
While India has a biotech variety of cotton in use for years now, there has been no food crop that has been genetically modified or engineered. A green signal to GM mustard can set a precedent. Apart from brinjal itself, rice and chickpea may join the queue soon, as GEAC has already okayed their field trials.
The anti-GM platform is a bit of rainbow coalition – different activists are opposed to different aspects of biotechnology, ranging from intellectual property rights issues involved to what they see as predatory nature of multinationals, the swadeshi vs foreign angle and, of course, the nature-must-not-be-messed-with camp.
The anti-GM faction strongly believes that commercialisation of mustard hybrid will only ensure profits for multinationals that will eventually call the shots in India’s agriculture.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: GM Mustard is Ready. But are we?
