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HomePosts Tagged "GM Mustard"
Agri Genomics, AgroPolicy, India, Interaction

At a meeting held in Delhi, the progressive farmers made a strong case for the swift introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops and other advanced agricultural technologies.

 For an Atmanirbhar Bharat, it’s crucial that our agriculture remains progressive, giving farmers the freedom to choose the practices and technologies that best suit their needs. On Tuesday, farmers from ten states gathered in the National Capital under United Farmers Empowerment Initiative, urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and help “make Indian farmers globally competitive, farming more remunerative, and agriculture a high-yielding profession.” They also requested Prime Minister to ensure the Government of India “cleared the regulatory hurdles at the earliest” to ensure speedy rollout of the GM crops.

At a meeting held in the city, the progressive farmers made a strong case for the swift introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops and other advanced agricultural technologies. This unified appeal from farmers across India follows the split decision by the Supreme Court on GM Mustard, a case that has been stalled for over two decades. Farmers gave a clarion call for a science-based approach to agricultural policy. The farmers stressed that India’s agricultural future hinges on the timely and responsible adoption of modern technologies like GM crops, which have the potential to boost productivity, reduce import dependence, and secure the livelihoods of millions.

The farmers highlighted that GM crops, including GM Mustard, have the potential to revolutionize Indian agriculture by boosting crop yields, reducing reliance on imports, and addressing challenges like climate change and pest resistance. They noted that these technologies have been safely used in many countries for decades, with no adverse effects on health or the environment.

“We are concerned that a game-changing technology like GM crops, which could transform the lives of Indian farmers, is being hindered and not introduced,” V Ravichandran, a farmer belonging to Tamil Nadu said. “We expressed our support to the government for their 2022 genome editing guidelines, which brought efficiency to the breeding process, and are appreciative of the Supreme Court’s directive to formulate a National GM Policy with input from all stakeholders. However, we fear that delays in introducing these technologies are negatively impacting farmers and hindering their progress,” Ravichandran added.

Despite overwhelming scientific evidence supporting the safety and efficacy of GM crops, there remains significant opposition in India, often fuelled by misinformation. The farmers challenged this opposition by sharing their personal experiences with GM crops like Bt Cotton, which has already demonstrated its ability to improve yields and boost farmer incomes.

According to the farmers, these technologies have been adopted globally for decades without any adverse effects on health or the environment. They urged the government to formulate a national policy rooted in scientific evidence to support the adoption of these innovations.

The farmers gathered under the banner of the United Farmers Empowerment Initiatives are staunch advocates for the use of progressive agricultural technologies, high-quality seeds, and judicious farming practices to enhance productivity. They have been pioneers in the successful use of Bt Cotton, which has significantly improved yields and farmer incomes across the country.

At a meeting held in Delhi, the

Agri Genomics, Agrotech, India, Industry Reports / Analysis, R&D

The application of molecular biology and genomics to farming, known as agrigenomics, has the potential to significantly transform India’s agrarian landscape. It has the potential to revolutionise agriculture by enhancing yield, expanding food variety, improving nutrition, creating disease and pest resilience, reducing food waste, and promoting sustainable farming practices. The ‘Genome-Editing’ technology is currently under scrutiny as AgroSpectrum examines its impact on the agriculture industry in general, with a particular focus on the future of India’s agriculture sector.

The application of molecular biology and genomics to farming, known as agrigenomics, has the potential to significantly transform India’s agrarian landscape. India is one of the world’s largest consumers of food, with a population of over 1.3 billion, and the agricultural industry employs over half of the country’s workforce. However, Indian farmers face various challenges, including pests, diseases, unpredictable weather fronts and the need to increase yields to feed a growing population. Agrigenomics offers potential solutions to these problems, but its implementation has been slow in India.

CRISPR/Cas9, also known as the ‘genetic scissors’, was recently discovered by Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, who were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020. This technology allows scientists to make precise modifications to the DNA of various organisms, including plants, animals, and microbes. It has the potential to revolutionise agriculture by enhancing yield, expanding food variety, improving nutrition, creating disease and pest resilience, reducing food waste, and promoting sustainable farming practices. The ‘Genome-Editing’ technology is currently under scrutiny as AgroSpectrum examines its impact on the agriculture industry in general, with a particular focus on the future of India’s agriculture sector.

Biotech crops, also known as GMOs (genetically modified organisms) or GEOs (genetically engineered organisms), have been developed through the commercial application of genetic engineering technology since 1996. These crops have been engineered to possess a wide range of desirable characteristics, including resistance to pests and diseases, tolerance of herbicides, tolerance of extremes of moisture and salt, increased yields, improved nutrient content, and increased storage stability, among others. While only Bt cotton has been cultivated for the last 20 years, other biotech crops, such as Bt brinjal, GM mustard, and herbicide-tolerant Bt cotton, have been approved by government scientific committees but have not been commercialised in India. All of the major scientific organisations, including the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), endorse GM technologies.

Genetic crop improvement and improvements in natural resource management have led to a tenfold increase in food grain output over the last hundred years. The earliest breeding method practised by ancient farmers and plant breeders was selecting superior plant types from the natural variation created by spontaneous mutations that generated novel alleles of the genes, as well as recombination of alleles from different genes in the genome. However, as science and technology have progressed, plant hybridisation techniques have also advanced.

“One just needs to look at the history of Bt-cotton to see the impact of the modification in terms of improved yield and greatly decreased use of pesticides. One can expect similar improvements in other GM crops. The preliminary data for mustard appears to show significant yield improvements (almost 40 per cent). This kind of improvement will be very important for farmers,” stated Sir Richard John Roberts, a British Biochemist and Molecular Biologist, who won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for his discovery of introns in eukaryotic DNA and the mechanism of gene-splicing.

To read more click on : https://agrospectrumindia.com/e-magazine

The application of molecular biology and genomics

Agri Genomics, Agrotech, India, Interaction, Seeds

– Sir Richard John Roberts, British Biochemist and Molecular Biologist & Winner of 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine shared his views on the future of GM crops and the prevailing challenges in its cultivation. Edited excerpts:

Nobel laureate Sir Richard John Roberts, a British biochemist and molecular biologist, who was awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, is one among those who welcome the recently announced GM Mustard commercialisation in India. Roberts, who currently works at New England Biolabs, opines that the Centre’s decision on GM Mustard will go a long way in improving the crop yield and nutritional quality, considering that today India meets nearly 55-60 per cent of its edible oil demand through imports.

In 2016, Roberts and other Nobelists had composed and signed a ‘Laureates Letter Supporting Precision Agriculture (GMOs)’  addressed to the leaders of Greenpeace, the United Nations and global governments. Roberts has advocated for Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in general and Golden Rice in particular to advance health in developing countries, noting the high safety record of GM foods. 

Based on the recommendation of the regulator Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC ), on October 25, 2022, the Ministry of Environment & Forest and Climate Change allowed the environmental release of transgenic mustard hybrid DMH-11 along with parental lines bn 3.6 and modbs 2.99 containing barnase, barstar and bar genes for developing new parental lines and hybrids. This decision has been viewed by some as a major positive for the country, while a few citizens, farmers associations, political organisations and activists have opposed it tooth and nail citing adverse impacts on the soil, environment and human/animal health. 

Roberts was in Mumbai recently to deliver a keynote address at the Academic launch of Maharashtra State Skills University. In an interaction with AgroSpecrum he shared his views on the future of GM crops and the prevailing challenges in its cultivation. Edited excerpts;

Will the GM Mustard commercialisation in India prove beneficial to farmers and the agriculture industry? 

One just needs to look at the history of Bt-cotton to see the impact of the modification in terms of improved yield and greatly decreased use of pesticides. One can expect similar improvements in other GM crops. The preliminary data for mustard appears to show significant yield improvements (almost 40 per cent). This kind of improvement will be very important for farmers.

The challenges are likely to come from anti-GMO activists, who have destroyed GM crops in other countries out of ignorance of their value or have made it very difficult to have the crops reach the market. This is an area where the government needs to play a key role in counteracting the lies that are told by the anti-GMO folks and if necessary, finding them or locking them up. The purveying of demonstrably false information is becoming a serious social disruptor and must be counteracted not just on the GMO front, but in all spheres of life.

What are your views on the current application and future perspectives of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology for developing new varieties of crops? How will CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology address the current challenges in agriculture?

It is already clear that CRISPR/Cas9 technology can be enormously helpful in developing novel genetically-modified crops – and examples abound. However, older methods also work well and the most sophisticated modern plant breeders use every tool at their disposal. The idea that one can get around the anti-GMO resistance by using CRISPR/Cas9 as a replacement is very concerning to me. The genetic modifications possible when using CRISPR/Cas9 just for editing are quite limited and should not be viewed by regulators as not being a GMO method. They clearly are and should be embraced as such. Then they can be combined with other methods to really speed the precision breeding of new crops. I find it disingenuous when scientists try to distinguish gene editing and GMO. They are both part and parcel of the very best technologies we have for improving crops and feeding the world.

How can GM crops solve global food security issues? 

Traditional breeding methods carried out over hundreds of years have led to significant improvements in yield, taste and pest resilience for the major crops we eat in the west and where the companies can make profits. Few companies have focused their attention on the crops that are widely consumed in the developing world, because companies always felt the potential profit margins were too small to make it worth their while. This has led to an enormous disparity in crop productivity between the developed world and the developing world. The use of GM approaches to increase yields, nutritional qualities, pest resistance, drought resistance, etc., in the indigenous crops in the developing world can be extraordinarily effective in raising those crops to the same levels as are found in the developed world. The advantage of using GM methods is that the improved crops can be brought to market much faster as the development time is much shorter. However, we need to make sure that the European anti-GMO activists do not stop these developments as they are still trying to do today. The purveyors of false information about GMOs need to be stopped by all means possible. They are actively killing people in the developing world.

It is being vocalised by some that GM mustard could cause cancer since GM mustard is herbicide-tolerant (HT) and HT technology is mostly carcinogenic. Is there any truth to this? 

I have not seen any scientific evidence for these assertions. Are they backed by science, or merely speculations by activists who want to scare people into abandoning the nutritious foods that can keep them alive? I suspect the evidence is non-existent and these arguments are the stuff of Hollywood scary movies.

         Dipti Barve 

        dipti.barve@mmactiv.com 

 

- Sir Richard John Roberts, British Biochemist

AgroPolicy, India, Seeds

Other crop varieties that could potentially be approved for commercial cultivation in future are BT cotton, BT brinjal and HT cotton.

The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) has approved the “environmental release” of indigenously developed genetically modified (GM) Mustard Seeds. This paves the way for possible ‘commercial use of the country’s first indigenously developed GM food crop.
Prior to this, Bt cotton – the plant containing the pesticide gene from the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), has been grown in India for about twenty years. The approval makes GM mustard only the second approved transgenic crop in India after Bt cotton and the first such food crop that can be commercially cultivated by farmers.
Important to note, GEAC approval is not the final call for commercial release but just a step in this direction as it still needs approvals on higher levels for the final release.
The recent approval could pave the way for increased edible mustard oil production while reducing huge import costs for edible oil. It is being said that GM Mustard or DMH-11 seeds could yield about 30 per cent more than a traditional reference mustard variety.
For the benefit of farmers, DMH-11 could reduce the use of pesticides and insecticides during farming thereby leading to better yield production. In fact, other crop varieties that could potentially be approved for commercial cultivation in future are BT cotton, BT brinjal and HT cotton.
Mustard is one of India’s most significant winter crops cultivated between mid-October and late November. It is a self-pollinating crop which is especially difficult to hybridise naturally as it cross-pollinates itself.


Other crop varieties that could potentially be