Agrarian distress in India is at its peak with very poor remuneration to farmers leading to increasing farmer suicides, protests and loan waivers. Farmers are now trying to find alternative solutions to their problems including the consideration of debated GM crops. Recently, in Maharashtra, the farmers’ organisation Shetkari Sanghatana (SS) announced that its members would be planting genetically modified (GM) herbicide-tolerant (HT) Bt cotton. HT Bt cotton is not allowed in India, and growing any GM crop illegally attracts five-year imprisonment and a ?1 lakh fine.

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Advantages of GM Crops other than pest resistance:

• Food Security: Given the increased growth of global population and increased urbanisation, GM crops offer one of the promising solutions to meet the world’s food security needs. DMH-11’s yield is 25% higher than the best non-GM seeds available in India. However, activists went ballistic and the government has backed off.
• Improved Stress Tolerance: Genes that give greater tolerance of stress, such as drought, low temperatures or salt in the soil, can also be inserted into crops. This can extend their range and open up new areas for food production.
• Faster Growth: Crops can be altered to make them grow faster, so that they can be cultivated and harvested in areas with shorter growing seasons. This again can extend the range of a food crop into new areas or perhaps allow two harvests in areas where only one is currently practical.
• More Nutritious Crops: Plants and animals can be engineered to produce larger amounts of essential vitamins and minerals, such as iron, helping to solve nutrition problems in some parts of the world. They can also be altered to change the amounts of protein, carbohydrates, and saturated and unsaturated fats that they contain. This could lead to the production of foods designed specifically for a healthy diet for all consumers.
• Resistance to Herbicides: Crops can be modified to be resistant to specific herbicides, making it much easier to control troublesome weeds. Farmers can simply apply the weed killer to a crop field, killing the unwanted plants and leaving the food crop unaffected. For example, GM oilseed rapeseed – the source of canola oil – is resistant to one chemical that’s widely used to control weeds.
• Economic benefits: GM crops can increase yield and thus income. Genetically modified foods have a longer shelf life. This improves how long they last and stay fresh during transportation and storage. India imported about ?80,000 crore worth of edible oils last year, and the bill keeps growing.
• Case study: Bt Brinjal: Bt brinjal was approved by the GEAC in 2009 but, under pressure from activists, the government disallowed its planting. Bangladesh, using the same GEAC report, went ahead. Today, about 17% of the country’s brinjal farmers grow Bt brinjal, which has reduced pesticide costs for GM crop farmers by 61%. The Bangladeshi Bt brinjal farmer’s net returns per hectare are six times his non-Bt counterpart’s per year.
• Environmental Benefits:
  • In 2017, 189.8 million hectares of biotech crops were planted in 24 countries (and consumed in 67).
  • To achieve the same yield standards, more than 300 million acres of conventional crops would have been needed.
  • According to UK consultancy firm PG Economics, the first 20 years of biotech crops (1996-2016) have seen a reduction of pesticide spraying by 671.2 million kg and the environmental footprint associated with pesticide use by 18.4%.
  • The figures for 2016: The drop in release of greenhouse gas emissions was equivalent to removing 16.75 million cars from the roads; the direct global farm income benefit from GM crops was $18.2 billion, equal to an average increase in income of $102 per hectare.
  • And in these 23 years of GM agriculture, there has not been a single authenticated health hazard case specific to it.

Concerns/Challenges associated with GM Crops:

• Human Health Risks:
  • Potential impact on human health including allergens and transfer of antibiotic resistance markers.
  • The impact of growing GM crops poses risks to human health as their resistance to antibiotics can turn medicines ineffective and may result in the formation of new toxins and allergens.
  • Toxins produced by GM crops can not only affect non target organisms but also pose the danger of unintentionally introducing allergens and other anti-nutrition factors in foods.
• Bio safety concerns:
  • They can reduce species diversity.
  • For example, Insect-resistant plants might harm insects that are not their intended target and thus result in destruction of that particular species.
  • Cross-pollination in GM crops paves the way for herbicide-resistant super weeds that can further threaten the sustenance of other crops and pests because of its uncontrolled growth
  • GM technology could also allow the transfer of genes from one crop to another, creating “super weeds”, which will be immune to common control methods.
  • Viral genes added to crops to confer resistance might be transferred to other viral pathogens, which can lead to new and more virulent virus strains.
• Implications on Farmers and Consumers:
  • Critics claim that patent laws give developers of the GM crops a dangerous degree of control over the food supply. The concern is over domination of world food production by a few companies
  • National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research’s anticipation that Bt brinjal’s high yield and increased shelf life will benefit consumers and farmers owing to cut in retail price of brinjals ignores the scenario that companies might charge premium prices for Bt brinjal seeds, in which case farmers may not benefit at all.
• Economic Concerns:
  • Introduction of a GM crop to market is a lengthy and costly process. It has not resulted in high yields as promised.
  • For instance, the highest yields in mustard are from the five countries which do not grow GM mustard — U.K., France, Poland, Germany and Czech Republic — and not from the GM-growing U.S. or Canada.
• Inefficient Regulatory system:
  • Seeing the lapses in the regulatory system and irregularities in the assessment of Bt brinjal (in terms of labelling and unapproved and illegal sowing of GM crops) Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture and the Committee on Science & Technology, Environment and Forests recommended:
  • A thorough probe by a team of eminent independent scientists and environmentalists for commercialization of GM crops.
  • Endorsed labelling GM foods to protect a consumer’s right to know.
• Ethical Concerns:
  • Violation of natural organisms’ intrinsic values by mixing among species.
  • There have also been objections to consuming animal genes in plants

Way Forward:

• The government must take decisions on GM technologies on the basis of scientific evidence.
• Need to start cultivating an environment of openness and transparency to allay genuine fears
• The government should adopt a participatory approach to bring together all stakeholders to develop regulatory protocols that restore trust in the process.
• There is a significant uncertainty over their safety, so precautionary principle is that country shall wait till a broader scientific consensus is achieved.
• Need for better policy, pricing and to rationalize the input costs
• GEAC needs to be a transparent body. it should put it in the public domain that on what grounds it has approved GM mustard
• There has to be strong liability laws if there are any environmental hazards or if something goes wrong in future
• Agriculture is a state subject therefore, it is important for the Centre to take into consideration the views of State Governments as well.
• The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has rightly pointed out in 2004, “Science cannot declare any technology completely risk free. Genetically engineered crops can reduce some environmental risks associated with conventional agriculture, but will also introduce new challenges that must be addressed”.