Biotech companies ready to launch trials of GM Crops

Biotech companies are gearing up for the launch of field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops in the ongoing kharif sowing season. Trials are likely to be initiated in the case of cotton, maize, rice and wheat. Trials were kept on hold for more than two years due to differences of opinion among various concerned departments in the government under UPA rule.

Three states - Punjab, Maharashtra and Karnataka - have granted no objection certificates to different companies to conduct trials, said industry officials. Biotech companies such as Monsanto and Syngenta are preparing to launch trials. An official with one of the biotech companies said trials will begin in maize and cotton.

The Ministry of Environment & Forests had in July 2011 made it mandatory for companies, institutes and research bodies to get no-objection certificates from the states concerned before conducting trials.

The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) which is the national regulator for GM crops had given its nod for field trials for 11 crops in March. These include maize, rice, sorghum, wheat, groundnut and cotton.

India is yet to approve the commercial cultivation of an edible GM crop even though the commercial cultivation of Bt cotton started in 2002. Twelve years later, cotton remains the only GM crop to be commercially grown in this country. This is despite India emerging as the fourth-largest country to grow biotech or GM crops in 2013, with farmers planting the transgenic Bt cotton on about 11 million hectares of land.