Roots of illegal Bt Brinjal farming in Haryana may lie in Bangladesh

NEW DELHI: After getting confirmation of illegal cultivation of genetically modified (GM) brinjal in a Fatehabad farm in Haryana, the Centre has asked the state to conduct a thorough probe to find out how a lone farmer there could lay hands on banned transgenic seeds and unearth an entire supply chain whose link may go beyond Bangladesh.
Analysis of test report, done by the Haryana government, clearly hints at GM source of the crop which could, however, be different from what was developed in India and is currently being used legally in Bangladesh. Though the Union environment ministry has, so far, not received report from Haryana government, the state’s director general (horticulture) Arjun Singh Saini on Monday told TOI that the tested samples are definitely GM but these aren’t Bt Cry1Ac transgene if one goes by its technical explanation — it means it was not the one which was developed by the Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Pvt Ltd (Mahyco) in India before moratorium on its commercial release in 2010.
“The screen tests for marker and promoter genes show that the tested samples were definitely GM. Three of the four tests were found to be positive,” said Saini. Asked how could the GM seeds be procured by the lone farmer , the DG said there was a possibility that someone could have handed it over to him for “trial purpose”.
He was not sure whether it was of Indian origin. “We may find it out after a thorough probe. It, however, appears through initial probe that the cultivation may just be limited to the lone farm in Fatehabad,” said Saini.