Association favours early nod for Bt Brinjal

Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa’s recent remarks the state will not allow the cultivation of Bt Brinjal were politically motivated and does not go well with the state’s image as ‘knowledge capital of India’, a body of scientists said.

The Foundation for Biotechnology Awareness and Education (FBAE), a Bangalore-based organisation of scientists and academicians, has said the chief minister’s statement shows the state in poor light.

“The chief minister should have given some thought to the fact that Karnataka’s very own university of agricultural sciences in Dharwad had developed the Bt Brinjal variety, before making the announcement. His statement was unnecessary at this point in time as the central government was yet to give its final consent for commercialising Bt Brinjal,” C Kameshwar Rao, executive secretary, FBAE said.

Addressing a press conference, here on Wednesday, he said delay in the commercialisation of Bt Brinjal would promote its clandestine cultivation as it happened with Bt cotton in Gujarat, and elsewhere. This is not in the best interests of the country, he said.

He said the cultivation and consumption of Bt Brinjal was absolutely safe, as many years of research has established the fact. “Bt Brinjal has passed through extensive agronomic and biosecurity evaluation as per the mandatory provisions of the Indian regulatory regime, during 2000-09.

This process involved about 200 scientists and experts from over 15 public and private sector institutions. We strongly recxommend the approval of Bt Brinjal for cultivation,” Rao said.

Shantaram, senior research scholar at Princeton University, said, “Yeddyurappa’s statement will be a major setback for Karnataka’s biotechnology development. It may hamper the flow of investment into the biotech sector in the state.”

Ridiculing Jairam Ramesh, Union minister for environment and forests, for his move to elicit public opinion on allowing Bt Brinjal, he said scientific issues cannot be decided by popular vote and the regulatory system is highly politicized. “This is a very sad development for India’s biotechnology sector,” he noted.

The stand taken by the MoEF created a lot of regulatory uncertainty for no valid scientific reason or environmental concern. No technology developer can afford to operate in the country to develop any biotech crop with such an uncertainty of an approval process that is not based on science, he said.

Karnataka government can ban cultivation of Bt Brinjal, but it cannot stop the farmers from bringing it into the state from other states, he added.

The Genetic Engineering Approval committee (GEAC), the biotechnology regulator, had on October 14, 2009, approved the commercialization of Bt Brinjal after the second expert committee concluded on October 8, 2009, that the Bt Brinjal with event EE-1 (Cry 1Ac) has been extensively tested for its biosafety and no additional studies or review were necessary.

Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company will be among the major beneficiaries if the Bt Brinjal is allowed for commercialization.