GM Brinjal Fallout

Except for cotton, no other genetically modified (GM) crop is allowed to be imported into or cultivated in India. So when it emerges that GM brinjal saplings are being peddled by shady suppliers and even grown in a farm in Haryana, alarmed activists are petitioning the Parliament and Central government to do something about it, or else the Union Environment Ministry’s 2010 moratorium on commercial planting of GM crops will be reduced to a mockery. A small farm in Fatehabad of Haryana is in the eye of the storm, with the owner revealing that he and another farmer last year had bought 1,200 brinjal saplings at seven times the price of regular saplings from a vendor at a nearby market town. They had done so because of the vendor’s claim that the saplings were immune to pests. After they sold their brinjal crop, activists got wind of it and acting on their complaint, experts from the State biotech regulator came calling. Samples were sent for testing, and thereafter the report by National Bureau for Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) said the brinjals had been genetically modified. It turns out that bacterial genes with known pest-resistant character had been incorporated in the brinjal’s genetic structure. Horticulture officials then uprooted the crop while the hapless farmer is asking what wrong did he commit in planting a crop that would have made costly pesticides unnecessary. Since this was his second brinjal crop, officials fear it may already have contaminated the existing stock, and a drive is underway to uncover the entire supply chain of GM brinjal seeds and saplings. Activists point out that India has the world’s largest brinjal germplasm with around 2,500 varieties including wild species; cross-pollination of this indigenous genetic resource with transgenic varieties will be a huge breach of the country’s bio-security, they warn, blaming the irresponsible regulatory system. But the reality is that farming is becoming increasingly risky due to extreme weather changes. Severe droughts and floods, unseasonal hailstorms and cold spells, virulent pest attacks and other threats keep farmers on tenterhooks, and it does not help matters that the entire market system is loaded against them. Farmers have always been on the lookout for productive, hardy crops but nowadays they keep a sharp eye for varieties with commercially desirable qualities. Whether the genetic makeup of any species is due to natural mating and recombination or genetic engineering in the lab is not usually their headache. It is the authority concerned that has to educate them about the potential health hazards in consuming genetically altered food, damage to the environment and bio-diversity, higher farming expenses and falling prey to rapacious biotech companies.