ABLE-AG response to Parliamentary Committee's report

Dear friends,
Soon after the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture presented its report on Genetically Modified crops to Lok Sabha, Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises-Agriculture (ABLE-AG) came with a criticism of the report. In a press release issued on August 9, 2012, ABLE-AG said that preventing field-testing and release of GM crop will hurt food security and India growth story. Here is the press release:

Preventing field-testing & release of GM crop will hurt food security and India growth story: ABLE-AG

The Parliamentary Panel Report on Cultivation of Genetically Modified Food Crops – Prospects and Effects released on Thursday and the panel's critical remarks against the use of transgenic crops are anti-framer, against seed and technology, and is a huge stumbling block in the Indian agriculture growth story.
"Biotech crops are one of the most economical and safe options for increasing farm production and productivity," said Mr Ram Kaundinya, Chairman of the Association of Biotech Led Enterprises-Agriculture Group (ABLE-AG), an industry representing agri biotech companies.
Scientist and Executive Director ABLE-AG Dr N Seetharama said the Panel was unfair in saying that the farmers had not gained from GM crops. “In the past decade or so, India has emerged as the second largest producer of cotton in the world with the use of Bt Cotton and this is a story with strong empirical evidence,” he said.
He disagreed with the panel's observation that poor farmers had not gained from the transgenic in agriculture crops. “Gujarat and 8 other cotton producing states are shining example of farmers' prosperity from Bt Cotton.” It is interesting to note that the committee acknowledges the tremendous success of Bt Cotton in India, but underplays the sustainable benefits provided by Bt Cotton.
The Association however pointed out that the report itself is “replete with assertions over the efficacy of the biotech crops as well as the robust regulatory mechanisms that are in place as submitted to the committee by various ministries and departments.”
Dr Seetharama added that given the large and long-term national interests as well as challenges of adequate food supply, it was vital we considered biotech crops in its totality. “The partial and one-sided arguments put forth in public domain could harm the national interest,” he said. World-over agri biotech is finding growing acceptance everyday and today 29 countries including the European Countries are using it. It is grown over 160 million hectares benefitting an estimated 16.7 million farmers.
“At a time when world is looking ahead, we should not create hurdles in our agriculture growth story which will severely hurt the interests of large number of small and resource-poor farmers and the indirect benefits of creating many more jobs in the country,” Dr Seetharama said.
ABLE-AG is a body of leading biotech companies in India that aims to accelerate the pace of biotechnology research by enabling strategic alliances between researchers, the government and the global biotech industry.

 

Annexure:

There are multiple reports published in the past years in India and abroad highlighting the socio –economic benefits of growing Bt Cotton in India.  Very recently Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a highly rated international journal, published a paper concluding that Bt cotton has created large and sustainable benefits, which contribute to positive economic and social development in India (Jonas Kathage and Matin Qaim, 2012. PNAS 109: 11652–11656).

Ag Biotechnology deploys more precise form of plant breeding, and so the products are in no  way different from those developed from traditional methods.  The regulatory process around biotech crops, have been more stringent mostly driven by the implied health and environmental risks associated with the DNA recombinant technology. Recently the EC (European Commission) examined the research on GM crops for last 25 years, looking at the results of 130 research projects involv­ing more than 500 independent research groups and concluded that the risk research on GM crops have established beyond reasonable doubt that biotechnol­ogy is not per se riskier than conventional plant breeding technologies. Unlike the traditional products, GM crops are most thoroughly tested for meeting stringent food, feed and environmental safety requirements and standards. No other crop products in history, including currently available foods on grocers’ shelves, have been tested and regulated as thoroughly as have GM crops/ foods.  The safety of GM crops is reviewed by regulatory agencies around the world by following to internationally agreed safety assessment guidelines.  We strongly feel that the regulatory system existing in India is a very robust one and is comparable to the regulatory frameworks employed in different countries. The nature and sequence of the various bio-safety evaluation studies in the guidelines prescribed by the GOI are adequate to establish the safety of the GE crop from the view point of human & animal health, and safety of environment as these regulatory procedures are based on sound scientific footing. It is time that we show faith in our regulatory systems and promote Ag Biotechnology which along with other technologies required for our food security and sustainability.