FNB News - Farmers seek speedy clearance for Biotech Regulatory Bill & Seeds Bill

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Farmers seek speedy clearance for Biotech Regulatory Bill & Seeds Bill

Tuesday, 09 August, 2011, 08 : 00 AM [IST]

Our Bureau, New Delhi

Farmers came together on Monday with scientists and agri-biotech industry to demand the second green revolution in India. Speaking in a unified voice they agreed that use of new technologies in agriculture was the only hope for farmers and solution to address the challenges of food security.

According to a working paper by Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), India would have to double its food production by 2020. Faced with tremendous challenges of ever reducing arable land & water resources, quality of soil, climate change, and shortage of labour farmers find it difficult to enhance their farm yields and need technology push.

The group demanded that Parliament cleared the long-awaited Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill and Seeds Bill. They also emphasised on expeditious approvals of biotech crop trials and commercialisation under the existing system till the BRAI is approved.

Plant biotechnology is a powerful tool that helps farmers provide food, feed, fibre, and fuel to a growing global population in a sustainable manner, while reducing agriculture's footprint on environment. Biotech crops have helped farmers increase their productivity while protecting biodiversity by increasing yield per acre.

Ravinder Singh, leader of the farmers, said, "Biotechnology offers one way out of this dilemma of growing more with less. It's nothing less than a miracle crop that requires fewer resources and produces greater yields than old-fashioned cotton, bringing prosperity to many families. With more than 90 percent of India's cotton famers taking advantage of biotechnology, I would appeal to the government to replicate the benefits to other crops."

Dr Vibha Dhawan, executive director, The Energy & Resource Institute (TERI), New Delhi, cautioned, "Some groups with vested interests are providing misleading information to public, media and policy-makers and this is dangerous. Biotech crops undergo rigorous safety assessments following international and national guidelines and no verifiable cases of harm to human or animal health have occurred."

Dr Bharat Char-led Biotechnology, Mahyco and ABLE-AG (The Association of Biotech Led Enterprise) member, added, "We are committed as an industry to prove the safety of biotech crops and adhere to very robust trials rules laid out by the Government of India. Our compliance to the regulatory processes is complete and sacrosanct."

Meanwhile, "Extensive studies examining the safety of biotech crops have been conducted by various independent bodies, including the World Health Organisation (WHO). These bodies have overwhelmingly concluded there are no adverse effects on human health. Twenty five Nobel Prize recipients and more than 3,400 prominent scientists have expressed their support for plant biotechnology as a "powerful and safe" way to improve agriculture and the environment," added Bhupen Dubey, head, Integrated Business, UPL / Advanta and member, ABLE-AG..

In 2010, more than half the world's population (59% or 4 billion people) lived in the 29 countries, which planted 148 million hectare of biotech crops. The United Nations (UN) WHO, Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), Royal Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, French Academy of Medicine, British Medical Association, 25 Nobel laureates (including Norman Borlaug) all concluded that biotech crops are as safe as conventional crops. Around 59 countries have granted regulatory approvals for biotech crops for import for food and feed use and for release into the environment since 1996 including the USA, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, South Korea, the Philippines, New Zealand, the European Union, Brazil and China. In India, large amount of edible oil is imported from various countries which produce them from biotech crops and no scientifically proven effect on people's health has been observed.

Dr P Anand Kumar, principal scientist, National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology (NRCPB), Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI), Ministry of Agriculture, said, "As illustrated by the success of Bt Cotton, the benefits are clearly in favour of Indian farmers, whose earnings have improved considerably, commensurate with dramatic increases in cotton yields over the past decade. Technology is not the sole domain of multinational corporations as Indian companies, Indian universities and other research institutes across the country are testing technologies or conducting field trials both independently and in partnerships." He added, "There should be a level playing field for all companies who invest millions in research and the there should be more efforts at encouraging further research on Indian soils for the benefit of India's farmers and future of the country."