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Everything You Eat
Will be GM:
Du Pont’s transgenic rice under trial in Karnataka (Photo: Vishwanath Anakatte)
Pretty soon there will be no food crop in India that has not been altered by scientists. Everything from the daily cuppa, fruits and veggies to spices will be genetically engineered, either to be pest and disease resistant or to withstand abiotic or environmental stresses.
It is a frenzy of genetic research in the country, with practically every institute of repute and even upstart private universities focusing on genetic modification of crops. According to the Indian GMO Research Information System (IGMORIS), research is under way on 74 crops in all. Even the holy of holies ashwagandha, a medicinal herb used in ayurvedic preparations, may find itself altered. All this stems from government policy. Since the 1990s, GM research has been a focal point of policy in an effort to push up yields of cereals, legumes and vegetables. The charts in our story (see ‘Welcome to GM country’) show that field trials are under way for 14 food crops from the ubiquitous potato and tomato to the succulent watermelon and papaya. What the charts don’t capture is the initial phase of the research, the event selection trials that are held after greenhouse testing to confirm the efficacy and stability of the gene. Hundreds of such trials are going on in the country.
There is no dearth of funding. Of the 400-odd institutes doing GM research (the Defence Research and Development Organisation and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre are among these), half receive some grant from the Department of Biotechnology. Other organisations, like the Indian Council for Agricultural Research and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, have budgets for such R&D, while projects of state agriculture universities and select institutes are sometimes sponsored by foreign governments. Even NABARD, it turns out, is in the business of bankrolling such projects.
The crops being worked upon include:
Fruits: Pomegranate, banana, apple, papaya, mulberry, muskmelon, watermelon
Vegetables: Potato, tomato, capsicum, chilly, carrot, pea, brinjal, cauliflower, cabbage, cassava, yam, cucumber, okra (lady finger), bell pepper, field bean, onion
Grains: Rice, wheat, maize
Spices and herbs: Black pepper, cardamom, ginger, ashwagandha, brahmi
Pulses/millets: Pigeon pea, black gram, chickpea, cowpea, ragi, red gram, finger millet, pearl millet
Other foods: Tea, coffee, sugarcane, sorghum, mustard, groundnut, peanut, soyabean
Commercial crops: Cotton, sunnhemp, bamboo, jute, castor, safflower, rubber, tobacco
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