Why India still remains in a state of confusion when it comes to GM crops

A lesser-known chapter in the life of MS Swaminathan, the chief architect of India’s Green Revolution, is his role in nudging the Vatican towards supporting genetically modified (GM) crops as a tool to fight global hunger.

 

As narrated in a recent biography by his niece Priyambada Jayakumar (MS Swaminathan: The Man Who Fed India), Swaminathan, while serving with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), met Pope John Paul II privately in 1982.  The pontiff, deeply troubled by drought-induced hunger in Africa, backed FAO’s efforts to tackle the crisis. 

His successor, Pope Benedict XVI, invited Swaminathan to the Vatican to help develop a strategy for the use and deployment of GM crops, though in a balanced, meaningful manner — bearing in mind the importance and impartiality of scientific data. The Pontifical Academy of Sciences later declared that GM crops were “no more dangerous than evolution,” marking rare institutional support from the church for what was seen as a contentious technology. 

Back in India, however, GM crops remain mired in political hesitation, regulatory deadlock, and activist opposition. 

Swaminathan himself, despite championing modern agricultural technologies, stirred controversy in 2018 when he co-authored a paper describing GM crops as a failure. After sharp pushback from scientists, including then principal scientific adviser K VijayRaghavan, Swaminathan clarified that he continued to support genetic modification and gene editing. 

GM and US tariffs 

The US administration’s move to impose 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods in response to India’s refusal to open its farm sector to American soybeans, corn, and dairy products has once again turned the spotlight on India’s GM crop policies and research.

The last and so far only GM crop cleared for full-scale commercial cultivation in India is cotton, approved in 2002.

 

Since then, numerous applications and traits have been submitted to regulators, but none has reached the final stage of commercialisation. Some companies have reportedly even scaled back research due to lack of policy support.

 

In cotton, the application for approval to Bollgard 2 Roundup Ready Flex (BG2 RRF) has been pending since September 2021. Reports suggest a regulatory panel has given a favourable assessment, but no further action has followed. The first approval dossier for BG2 RRF, an improvement over BG2, was filed before the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) in 2013 using trial data from 2008–13. 

However, delays, opposition to herbicide-tolerant crops, concerns over intellectual property, and a 2016 draft agriculture ministry guideline requiring GM technology patentees to license technology on “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” terms prompted the applicant to withdraw the proposal. Though the guideline was later shelved, industry stakeholders say the damage to investor confidence was lasting.

 

The draft guideline had evoked strong protests from most industry associations and other stakeholders who contended that they would impact the commercial interest of the companies.

 

CD Mayee and Bhagirath Choudhary of the South Asia Biotechnology Centre, Jodhpur, have argued in Business Standard that the Cotton Seeds Price (Control) Order, 2015, mandating a fixed maximum retail price for Bt cotton seeds, has further discouraged private biotech investment. 

BG2 RRF approvals have since been stalled, variously over fears of foreign companies taking control of Indian seed firms and concerns about extensive use of the herbicide glyphosate in weed management. 

The case of GM mustard   The second long-pending case is GM mustard.

 

According to a statement in Parliament, on October 18 2022, the government had approved the environmental release of GM mustard hybrid DMH-11 and its parental lines during GEAC’s 147th meeting. 

The approval was given for seed production and testing of GM mustard according to Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) guidelines, conditions imposed by GEAC while recommending the environmental release of GM mustard hybrid DMH-11 and its parental lines; and other extant rules/regulations prior to commercial release.  

 

Some trials have been conducted, but litigation in the Supreme Court has cast a shadow over the process. Multiple petitions challenge the approval on environmental and health grounds, and the matter remains sub judice. 

In the pipeline 

Other applications are also in the pipeline, including biosafety trials for BG2 RRF and pink bollworm-resistant seeds in some states, and trials for insect-resistant, herbicide-tolerant maize, for which Punjab Agricultural University recently granted a no-objection certificate.

 

“This maize is coming back for trials after almost 10 years,” Choudhary said. 

There is also a pending application for event selection of GM pigeon pea and requests for approval to import dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS), a byproduct of ethanol production from corn. 

India and GM crops 

It is not that India has never consumed GM products. In August 2021, on the request of the Ministry of Animal Husbandry, the government allowed the import of 1.5 million tonnes of genetically modified soymeal strictly for use as animal feed. Of this, 1.2 million tonnes were actually imported. “Though not meant for direct human consumption, the use of GM soymeal for animal feed does raise questions,” said a senior industry executive. 

India has also been a regular importer of soy oil extracted from GM seeds grown in Brazil, Argentina, and more recently China. The official position is that since the oil is extracted from beans, it contains no proteins and is therefore free of LMOs, or Living Modified Organisms.

 

Pro-GM groups point out that the resurgence of pests such as the pink bollworm in Bt cotton fields is due not to the seed itself, but to poor implementation of refugia management strategies. Under this system, Bt and non-Bt cotton are planted simultaneously side by side to ensure that pests do not develop resistance to the Bt toxins. 

“In India, we have two types of movement against GM crops,” said Deepak Pental, former vice chancellor of Delhi University and a brain behind DMH-11 hybrid GM mustard. “The first is by those who fear the takeover of indigenous seeds by foreign companies and multinationals. The second are those who fear some sort of contamination of seeds, for which they feel we need to stick to old methods. To me, both are wrong and won’t ensure food security for 1.4 billion people.” 

He added that without herbicide-tolerant crops, India’s yields will continue to stagnate as pests and diseases take their toll. 

Choudhary feels that India must adopt a progressive and liberal approach towards advanced biotechnology and genome editing, the emerging scientific frontiers that hold the key to faster crop improvement, the development of climate-smart agriculture, and long-term environmental resilience. 

For now, India’s GM crop landscape remains one of promise stalled by policy inertia, while scientific, commercial, and global trade pressures continue to mount.