Intervene over Centre's nod to GM mustard, Bengal government urged

Amid reports that the central government was considering a proposal to permit cultivation of GM mustard, a section of farmers, scientists and civil society organisations urged the West Bengal government on Monday to "assert itself with the Centre" and ban its cultivation in the state.

The Coalition for a GM Free West Bengal said Bengal, being the largest consumer of mustard and also one of the largest producers of mustard in the country, would "suffer the most" if GM mustard is introduced.

According to geneticist Tushar Chakraborty, the GM mustard in question -- named DMH 11 (Dhara Mustard Hybrid 11) -- has been developed by the Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants (CGCMP), Delhi University with support from the Department of Biotechnology and the National Dairy Development Board.

"In contrary to the yield enhancement claims of GM mustard developers, in reality, productivity is not an issue at all to the farmers, if farmer-friendly policies are put into place by the government, including the right price signals and actual procurement.

"This GM mustard is not required and will impact farm livelihoods adversely," Chakraborty, a member of the state Biotechnology Council, told the media here.

Further, the coalition also slammed the "secretive" nature of the trials and biosafety assessments.

"It is outrageous that GM food crops are being pushed without adequate safety assessment and transparency," said Kavitha Kuruganti, co-convenor of the Coalition for a GM Free India.

"If the Centre goes ahead with the commercial cultivation, then there is a chance that the Bengal government's policy which bans GM crops would be trampled upon. So we request the state government to assert itself with the Centre and not introduce GM Mustard and GM crops in general," Kuruganti said.

Kuruganti said that while the agriculture minister of Rajasthan, the largest producer of mustard in India, said the state will not let GM mustard be cultivated, other big producers like Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have denied permission to do field trials of this GM mustard.

"There is a growing body of scientific evidence on the adverse impacts of GM crops to human health and environment and any effort to release such crops in to the environment would be against science and society."