The 'framework for an interim agreement regarding reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade' between India and the US released by the White House on Saturday has revived the issue of genetically modified crops because of their prevalence in American farming. This is not entirely an unwelcome development. It offers India an opportunity to work on its prejudices against Bt crops. India needs the tech for its food security, but has allowed politics to hijack scientific inquiry into the nutritional benefits and environmental costs of modern biotech.
The country is falling back in adopting GM tech despite the developing world taking the lead from industrialised nations in growing crops whose genes have been altered. This is on account of a policy logjam that has hobbled its ability to test GM crops and decide on its own which ones should be allowed.
Three factors contribute to this impasse. One, the wrong categorisation of GM crops as being hazardous to the environment. Two, environmental 'protection' has been granted through an administrative order that has rendered India's GM regulator dysfunctional. Three, regulation of GM crops is led by the Centre and resisted by states.
India needs a regulatory mechanism that can restore undeservedly damaged public trust in a tech that's sweeping global agriculture as we remain an unlikely holdout despite having an immense stake in this game. The indefinite moratorium on testing GM crops is progressively making Indian agriculture uncompetitive and exerting unsustainable pressure on resources like land and water.
The trade deal with the US provides a re-entry point to policy sanity. As a starting point we must allow scientists, not politicians, to decide on science. Biotech is too valuable to be left to the lobbyists.
India's scientific community and a section of its policy establishment have watched helplessly as political agendas have shaped the 'debate'. It's time biotech is backed by legislative intent so that Indians can make informed choices about how they want to feed themselves.
The country is falling back in adopting GM tech despite the developing world taking the lead from industrialised nations in growing crops whose genes have been altered. This is on account of a policy logjam that has hobbled its ability to test GM crops and decide on its own which ones should be allowed.
Three factors contribute to this impasse. One, the wrong categorisation of GM crops as being hazardous to the environment. Two, environmental 'protection' has been granted through an administrative order that has rendered India's GM regulator dysfunctional. Three, regulation of GM crops is led by the Centre and resisted by states.
India needs a regulatory mechanism that can restore undeservedly damaged public trust in a tech that's sweeping global agriculture as we remain an unlikely holdout despite having an immense stake in this game. The indefinite moratorium on testing GM crops is progressively making Indian agriculture uncompetitive and exerting unsustainable pressure on resources like land and water.
The trade deal with the US provides a re-entry point to policy sanity. As a starting point we must allow scientists, not politicians, to decide on science. Biotech is too valuable to be left to the lobbyists.
India's scientific community and a section of its policy establishment have watched helplessly as political agendas have shaped the 'debate'. It's time biotech is backed by legislative intent so that Indians can make informed choices about how they want to feed themselves.
