A government panel has approved an application for green disposal of genetically modified (GM) mustard seeds, experts said, paving the way for the commercial use of the country’s first genetically modified food crop. The Genetic Engineering Assessment Committee (GEAC), an arm of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, has approved GM mustard seeds, said a top scientist and agricultural expert in India.
The confirmation was also confirmed by three government sources who requested anonymity in accordance with official rules. Lab-engineered mustard seeds were developed by Deepak Pental, a scientist and former vice-chancellor of Delhi University, and his team. Pental and his collaborators have been working on GM mustard for more than a decade.
“I can call it a breakthrough development,” Pental told Reuters on Wednesday. He said commercial use of GM mustard seeds would take several years. India is the world’s largest importer of edible oils. It spends tens of billions of dollars each year importing cooking oils, as the country meets more than 70% of its vegetable oil demand with imports from Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, Argentina, Russia and Ukraine.
“GEAC’s decision recognizes the potential of biotechnology to address India’s growing edible oil import problem,” said Bhagirath Choudhary, director of the South Asia Biotech Centre, a non-profit scientific society. Many scientists and agricultural experts have called for a faster phase-out of GM crops in India, where farms are shrinking due to rapid urbanization and erratic weather conditions threatening the production of staples such as rice and wheat.
However, conservative politicians and interest groups have opposed lab-engineered crops because they believe GM crops could threaten food safety and biodiversity, as well as pose health risks. India first allowed GM cultivation in 2002 with genetically modified cotton. Apart from GM cotton, New Delhi has not approved any other transgenic crop. GM cotton helped transform India into the world’s No. 1 cotton producer and second-largest exporter of the fiber as production increased fourfold.
