How sound science behind GM Mustard cannot be ignored

The Supreme Court of India has raised a very pertinent observation seeking compelling reasons for the release of GM mustard in its hearing held on Dec 2, 2022. In response, the scientific community has collated solid dataset and empirical evidence based on rigorous biosafety evaluation and closely supervised open field trials, greenhouse/net house experiments on GM mustard in the last two decades.

“It is time that the Supreme Court of India must not turn indifferent to the most obvious and compelling reasons for the release of GM mustard. The case on GM crops is one of the longest pending cases in the Supreme Court of India. It serves the purpose of those who are ideological against technology, choice and innovative practices in Indian agriculture, said Dr C D Mayee, President of South Asia Biotechnology Centre, Jodhpur, Rajasthan.

Echoing Dr Mayee’s observation, “Bhagirath Choudhary, Founder & Director of South Asia Biotechnology Centre pointed out that the frequent interventions and court orders in the past have caused a great deal of public distrust, demotivated regulatory system and demoralised scientific community greatly impacting advancement of science of biotechnology, product development and commercialisation in India in the last twenty years”.

The scientific community firmly believes that the reasoned arguments must consider following facts and empirical datasets to arrive at an objective, factual and science-based judgement on GM mustard. 

1). Double digits inflation – Like soyabean, groundnut and other edible oil, the cost of a litre of mustard oil has doubled from Rs 90-100 per litre to Rs 180-200 per litre in the last ten years. The rise in edible oil prices has been a big concern for consumers. The surge in edible oil prices, in India and globally, as measured by FAO sub-index for vegetable oil has risen sharper than general food prices index in the last few years. In India, the CPI for edible oil, measured in terms of oils and fats in food and beverages category of CPI peaked at all time high of 202.4 in May 2022 from a record low of 81.9 in Jan 2011 with base benchmark of CPI 100 at 2012 (Figure 1). The inflation in edible oil almost doubled in last few years causing great suffering to the poorest of poor in the society.    

2). Import dependence in edible oils: In 2021-22, India imported two-third of its edible oil, estimated at 14.1 million tons. In the past, edible oil import peaked at 1.97 million tons which forced then Govt of India to launch National Mission on Oilseeds in 1987-88. The situation improved momentarily in the nineties. By early 2000-01, India registered an unprecedented surge in import of edible oil to the tune of 4.1 million tons; 6.7 million tons by 2010-11 and 15.6 million tons by 2015-16. Notably, the magnitude of import remained stagnant at 14-15 million tons per year which is equivalent of two-third of total edible oil consumption pegged at 21 million tons in 2021-22

3) Staggering cost of imported edible oil: India drained precious foreign resources of US$19.6 billion or Rs 1,56,800 crore in 2021-22 on imported edible oil consisting of palm oil, soybean, sunflower and canola. The cost of imported edible oil was equivalent to 50% India’s total agri-import of US$32.4 billion in 2021-22. In the past, India spent Rs 926 crore on imported edible oil in 1987-88, Rs 6,093 crore in 2000-01; Rs 29,860 crore in 2010-11; Rs 68,677 crores in 2015-16; Rs 71,625 crore in 2019-29 and Rs 1,17,225 crore in 2020-21 before reaching all time high at Rs 1,56,800 crore in 2021-22 (Figure 3). An unprecedented surge in international prices of edible oil coupled with deteriorating exchange rate in last two years has caused spiraling inflation in domestic edible oil market.    

4). Low edible oilseeds yield – The edible oil yield shows negative CAGR over the last 25 years in India. Infact, the yield of all oilseed crops is abysmally low. As low as one-third of global averages and sometimes lowest in the world. For the last two decades, the yield of oilseed crops in India remained stagnant at around 1,100-1,200 kg per hectare. India produces total oilseeds of 35.9 million tons barely yielding 1,247 kg per hectare from total oilseed crops areas of 28.8 million hectares in 2020-21 (Figure 4). Edible oil recovery at 8 million tons from 35.9 million tons of total oilseeds hardly meet even 35-40 per cent of total edible oil requirement pegged at 21 million tons per annum. The situation will worsen in the future as the demand for cooking oil has been increasing year-on-year, with protected demand at 29.05 million tonne by 2029-30.

5). Global edible oil competitiveness – Globally, the approval and adoption of genetically modified canola, an equivalent of mustard and GM soyabean has not only saved economies from crop losses caused due to pests, diseases and weeds but also has increased the competitiveness of farmers to produce edible oil at a much more competitive price than Indian farmers. Globally, the genetically modified crops particularly edible oilseeds crop such as soybean and canola have been grown since 1996 in major edible oil producing countries of Argentina, Brazil, USA and Canada. A sneak peak into the global adoption of GM edible oilseeds shows a robust adoption and acceptance of GM crops over 190.4 million hectare by 17 million farmers in 29 countries (Figure 5).

6). Backet of edible oil (GM & non-GM) – Like other big economies, India is one of the largest consumers of edible oil derived from the genetically modified oilseeds both produced domestically and imported from different GM growing countries. Of the 14.1 million tonne of imported edible oils, GM soybean and GM canola constituted around 4.1 to 4.6 million metric tons, equivalent of 30 per cent total imported edible oil (Figure 6). In addition, cotton oilseeds is a major source of domestically produced cotton oil contributing close to 1-1.5 million tons to edible oil pool in India. The majority of cotton seeds oil is derived from genetically modified Bt cottonseeds cultivated over 11.9 million hectares or 95 per cent of total cotton growing areas in Northern, Central and Southern cotton growing zones. In summary, India annually consumes around 5-6 million tons of edible oil in the form of soybean, canola and cotton sourced from genetically modified plants without any adverse health effects. In addition, GM cotton oilseed cake or kapas khali constitutes almost one-third of total animal feeds, a major constituents of animal feed available at affordable cost.   

7). Level up on production technology – India’s farmers are at a great disadvantage and have been denied access to technologies, and thus they are unable to compete in the global trade in oilseed grains, edible oil and oilseed cake. Our farmers need to level up on production technologies as they struggle to cope up with pests, diseases and vagaries of climate change that are more severe in the tropical agro-climatic regions such as India. Increasing production of oilseeds is an absolute necessity to increase flow of edible oil. In the past, India has made some progress on crop improvement with the best of breeding efforts coupled with All India Coordinated Research Projects on mustard, soybean and other major oilseeds crops. However, the self-pollinated nature of oilseeds makes it extremely difficult to harness the genetic potential of diverse germplasm. On the contrary, the competing edible oil producing countries has deployed a series of advanced GM technologies to increase yield of canola and soybean, which now dominant global trade in edible oil, oilseeds and animal feed.

8). GM mustard is a platform technology- It took a decade of rigorous scientific assessment and public scrutiny before GEAC approved the environmental release of hybrid DMH-11 and its parental line — a new genetic system of heterosis breeding for developing cost-effective, 100 per cent fertile and high-yielding mustard hybrids under supervision of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). GM mustard hybrid, DMH-11 is the first-generation mustard hybrid based on Barnase-Barstar system developed by Dr Deepak Pental at a time when there was no CMS system available for producing mustard hybrid in early 2000, is a proof-of-concept showing comparative yield advantage over its parent varuna variety. The deregulation of GM mustard Barnase-Barstar system technology is expected to give impetus to the mustard breeding program by both the public and private sector resulting in introduction of high-yielding and superior mustard hybrids capable of revolutionizing mustard farming and edible oil production in the country (Table 1).

9). Ownership of GM Mustard: NDDB and Delhi University held around 10 patents on modified Barnase-Barstar pollination control system and seed production methods on Indian mustard obtained between 2004 to 2015 (Table 2). These patents were filed and granted in multiple mustard/canola growing geographies of Australia, Canada, EU and USA. The NDDB and Dept of Biotechnology (DBT) funded entire R&D and rigorous biosafety assessment costing Rs 90 crores to the mustard (Brassica) group of the Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants (CGMCP) of University of Delhi resulted in 10 patents, a dozen of PhDs and a large number of greenhouse/net house studies and government supervised large scale field trials before GM mustard was finally approved for environmental release on 18 Oct 2022 by GEAC of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MOEF&CC). 

The Supreme Court of India has raised