Farmer groups demand end to GM mustard trials; write to PM Narendra Modi

Activists claims Centre misleading SC on GM mustard

A day before the next hearing at the Supreme Court on GM mustard, a group of scientists and activists alleged the government had given “untrue” and “incorrect” information in its affidavit filed in the apex court recently.

Also, some anti-GM farmers’ associations wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop all approvals and trials of GM mustard.

“It is with alarming alacrity that the government of India has violated its own undertaking given to the Supreme Court in hearings related to this matter and also acted in contempt of the court’s orders when it got the GM mustard planted in six locations around November 1, 2022,” said Kapil Shah of the Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture.

The Centre, in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court earlier this month, said opposition to GM crops was based on “unfounded” fears because India was importing and consuming edible oils made from GM seeds.

According to the Centre, 50-60 per cent of the edible oil consumed in India is imported and hence the use of new genetic technology was pertinent in reducing dependence on import.

“Hybrids give higher yield as compared to traditional varieties. GM mustard has not been developed as Herbicide Tolerant (HT) technology,” it said.

Kavitha Kuruganti of the Coalition of GM-Free India said all these were incorrect and there were at least five areas in which the government gave wrong information to the country’s highest court.

The first of these is the claim that the government is implementing what the court-appointed committee had said regarding the approval process of GM crops and the panel itself was divided in its recommendations, she said.

She said the Centre’s claim that GM was not a herbicide-tolerant crop was “outrageously irresponsible” and unscientific. The applicant did not apply for the HT commercial trait. Bar genes being enhanced manifold in its expression is a dead giveaway that GM mustard is nothing but an HT crop, she said.

The claim about GM mustard leading to substantial savings on foreign exchange by lowering imports does not have evidence to support it, she added.

Dhiraj Singh, former director of the Bharatpur-based Directorate of Rapeseed and Mustard Research, which comes under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, said: “India’s production of rapeseed and mustard has risen by almost 38 per cent in the past decade. Just around 15 per cent of India’s annual edible oil consumption is mustard. Further, farmers have more than 12 hybrid options, which are high-performing and high-yielding. In such a situation where is the need for GM mustard and why is the Supreme Court being told that we need this risky and irreversible option?”