The environment ministrys apex body for genetic engineering clearances has not had its pre-kharif meeting thus far,raising the prospect of a wasted year ahead for agricultural biotech research. The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) meeting approves private and public research projects in the country. The panel,which was reconstituted in March after lying defunct for about 10 months,met on March 22,but its minutes are yet to be published,sources said. The April 22 meeting that grants permission for field-based research by private seeds and research companies and public institutions did not take place. The sowing window in north India ends by May 10. In western and central India it will end by June first week. No permissions have been granted to the companies. Naturally,they cant undertake their field research projects in the current year, a senior official in a private company said. On the agenda of the meeting were several permissions for field or lab trials,and for extensions of permissions granted earlier. They included requests for experiments on products like GlyTol cotton,event selection trials of transgenic rice,cotton and maize,castor events,nitrogen use-efficient cotton,pollen flow trial on glyphosate (weedicide) resistant Roundup Ready wheat line,etc. All these requests may now have to wait for next year. Research is key to advanced technology in agriculture,which in turn is key to increasing productivity. Over 93 per cent of Indias cotton acreage is under Bt hybrids. Fifty per cent of edible oil comes from imports of genetically modified soya. If we continue to put research and technology on the back burner,how are we going to increase productivity? And what about giving farmers better choices of seeds? said another company official. GEAC Member-Secretary Ranjini Warrier declined to discuss the matter. I dont want to give any information now, she told The Indian Express. K K Narayanan,MD of the Tata group company MetaHelix Life Sciences and secretary of ABLE-AG (Association of Biotech-led Enterprises,Agricultural Group),said,The whole last year was lost due to non-reconstitution of GEAC. And this year too we have heard nothing from the government yet. And after the Bt brinjal controversy,the government has made it compulsory to take no-objection certificates from states as well. The next year too will be lost. Ram Kaundinya,chairman of ABLE-AG and MD of UPL Advanta Seeds,said,Entire research has come to a standstill. Entire investment in infrastructure,labs and manpower has been rendered unproductive. Fresh investments will also be affected. There is no clarity and roadmap from the government.
