Bt cotton’s success -- in boosting yields and turning India from an importer to the world’s second largest exporter -- is well-documented.The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) has recommended the “environmental release” of the transgenic hybrid mustard DMH-11 for seed production and commercial cultivation. If approved, it will be the first ever genetically modified (GM) food crop that Indian farmers would plant. It would also be the first GM crop after Bt cotton, whose original version (containing a single insect pest-resistant gene) was released in 2002 and an improved double-gene product in 2006. Even DMH-11, incorporating three alien bacterial genes that enable hybridisation, was first developed in 2002. That it has taken so long — one still does not know if the GEAC’s green signal will translate into final official approval — only demonstrates the extent of resistance to adoption of a technology maligned for reasons not grounded in science. The fact of the developer in this case being an Indian publicly-funded university — and not an American (now German) multinational, as with GM Bt cotton — has not helped.
The Narendra Modi government shouldn’t waste time in accepting the recommendation of its GM products watchdog. The main sowing season for mustard is from October to mid-November. An early decision will allow seed multiplication for farmers to be able to plant in the 2023-24 crop season. Multi-location field trials of DMH-11 over three seasons (2010-11, 2011-12 and 2014-15) showed its average seed/grain yields at 2.4-3 tonnes per hectare, as against 1.9-2.2 tonnes for the best national “check” variety Varuna and the all-India mean of 1.2-1.3 tonnes. Moreover, what the Delhi University scientists led by its former vice chancellor Deepak Pental have developed is a robust and viable “barnase-barstar-bar genes” system for hybridisation. Being a largely self-pollinated crop, mustard isn’t amenable to reaping the yield gains (“heterosis”) resulting from crossing of genetically diverse plant varieties even within the same species. GEAC has approved not just the product (DHM-11), but also the hybridisation platform. Pental’s team can now share their GM parent lines with others — including private seed companies — who can breed mustard hybrids giving higher yields than DMH-11 or possessing other traits such as better oil quality and disease resistance.
Bt cotton’s success — in boosting yields and turning India from an importer to the world’s second largest exporter — is well-documented. Also, no adverse outcomes have been reported from the consumption of its oil and seed cake fed to cattle over the last 20 years. There’s no scientific evidence demonstrating the harmful effects of any GM crop — whether maize, soyabean or mustard’s cousin canola — on human and animal health, leave alone the environment. A country importing over 60 per cent of its edible oil requirements, costing $19 billion foreign exchange in 2021-22, cannot afford the luxury of indefinitely blocking technology for its farmers. That’s an approach that is neither scientific nor swadeshi.