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GM is cottage industry, hybrid seeds flood Gujarat fields: The Indian Express
Rajkot/ Junagadh, May 28: Remember the feverish international debates around the hype and scare over genetically modified organisms? Come to Gujarat and see the entire seed belt converted into one giant laboratory where enterprising farmers are mixing and crossing local varieties with the genetically modified one to develop their own unapproved hybrids of Bt cotton.
Rajkot/ Junagadh, May 28: Remember the feverish international debates around the hype and scare over genetically modified organisms? Come to Gujarat and see the entire seed belt converted into one giant laboratory where enterprising farmers are mixing and crossing local varieties with the genetically modified one to develop their own unapproved hybrids of Bt cotton.
They are then packaged and sold illegally to farmers begging for ‘‘magical seeds’’ that will offer deliverance from bollworm.
It is a predictable but lethal sequel to events two years back when Gujarat produced the ‘Robinhood of Biotechnology’, D B Desai. He was found selling unapproved genetically modified version of BT cotton seeds even as Mahyco Monsanto Biotech’s Bollgard was undergoing laborious trials for seven years.
‘‘Now there is a Desai in every house and Bt seeds in every farm,’’ said a smug farmer V B Patel in Mansa, heart of Northern India’s cotton seed-belt.
It started in 2001 when the government watched helplessly as farmers exulted over Desai’s Navbharat 151 flourishing while the rest of the cotton crop succumbed to a catastrophic pest attack. Inspite of Genetic Engineering Approval Committee’s (GEAC) order to burn these crops, the government, fearing the ‘‘law and order’’ situation, let matters pass.
The result was that when the controversy erupted, Desai went underground and hundreds of farmers in Andhra Pradesh who had contracts to produce Navbharat 151 sold these parental lines to plant breeders who rushed from Gujarat smelling a gold mine. Nearly all the original breeders would have saved some in their house out of sheer habit.
Now once the parent seed is with a plant breeder, any small farmer’s child in these parts will tell you it is no rocket science to develop a home-grown Bt seed — just segregate the male and female seeds, take the Bt male and cross it with a robust female variety.
This is one scenario that the GEAC failed to anticipate as they gave approval to only Bollgard. Scientists now are arguing that GEAC should have limited themselves to only clearing the gene — Bt. The mushrooming hybrids were a foregone conclusion in the Indian scenario where farmers are known to save seeds and experiment.
Mahyco can only complain to the GEAC and not sue these companies as the patent law on the process on the generic product is yet to come into effect in India. This phenomenon is similar to what Shanta Biotech did with the Hepatitis B drug in India — it managed to come out with a cheaper drug than the one sold by a multinational by just altering the process.
With a bit of persistence, one can buy one of the 10 brands available — Rakshak, Maharakshak, Viraat, Agni or simply 151. In addition, there is also the F2 variety that is second generation of Navbharat 151 that though will have a lesser percentage of Bt expression but still gives 75 per cent of the higher yield.
‘‘The biggest danger is that with all kinds of Bt hybrids including the second- and third-generation ones, the Bt expression will come down and pests will develop resistance faster,’’ said P K Ghosh who was former adviser to the Department of Biotechnology.
This year, the state government is once again turning a blind eye to the blatant violation of laws on handling of GMOs. Apart from a few token raids, there has been little to stop them. Even farmers groups are supporting these ‘‘traditionally bred’’ varieties over the legally approved multinational Monsanto’s Bollgard.
‘‘It is impossible to control something at this large a scale. When we go to the fields, we become targets for trying to take away a beneficial technology from farmers,’’ said A K Dixit, Director of Agriculture.
Desai enjoys a demi-God status among farmers as he is the one who brought the technology to them at an affordable rate (he was selling at Rs 400 per 450 gms while Bollgard is for Rs 1,600), never mind if it was unapproved. These days he is lying low, barely keeping his other seed business afloat. It is the small-time plant breeders and enterprising businessmen who have taken the baton and, with a bit of ingenuity, are cashing in on the demand created by Desai.
In his first-ever interview, Desai told The Indian Express: ‘‘I am happy that at least the farmers are getting the technology at a cheap rate. It doesn’t matter if others are making money at my cost.’’ At his office in Ahmedabad, he still gets hundreds of calls asking for his Navbharat 151.
He still is hopeful that the government will recognise that that his seeds are good and consider it for approval ‘‘in the interest of the farmers’’. Some of these Robinhoods are more organised — they are actually packaging it, the others are merely putting seeds in white cloth bags and selling it at exorbitant rates, just a little below Bollgard’s rates to farmers.
The situation is alarming to say the least, considering Bollgard was approved with a long list of dos and don’ts in the summer of 2001 after a lot of soul-searching by the government. This was in the face of severe opposition from environmental groups on environmental and bio-safety grounds. GEAC directed Mahyco to maintain list of dealers, get feedback from farmers, have detailed directions on how to plant it and even put a condition that there would be five rows of non-Bt as refuge.
Contrast this cautious approach to what is happening at the ground level in Gujarat — nearly 70 per cent of the state’s 1.5 lakh hectares is going to be planted with Bt and those in the business say that the approved variety of Mahyco is going to as less as 10 per cent.
The rest will go to unapproved ones sold under the counter or when jeeps loaded with these seeds come in the dead of the night to do business worth lakhs of rupees. On investigation, farmers in Gauridal village in Rajkot district show the orange-coloured packet of Rakshak. It gives no address of any manufacturer but quotes a section of the Seed Act that allows farmer-farmer exchange of seeds. It is,
however, sold at Rs 1,300 per 450 gms. Inspite of the absence of any address, every farmer in the area knows where it is coming from — a Junagarh-based businessman Nattubhai Makaria. Makaria was till last year in the pesticide business and has employed some of the best plant breeders to make Rakshak.
The male is the same as Navbharat 151 while the female is of a local variety. He was clearly one of those who went and bought the parental lines just after the controversy flared-up. He has come out with another hybrid called Maharakshak this year. He is cashing in on the faith he enjoys with the local farmers.
There is another plant breeder, PhD from Gujarat Agriculture University and now running his own seed shop known as ‘‘Dr’’ Dholaria. It is difficult to catch him as he is touring the Saurashtra countryside, organising demonstration for his brand called Sarathi.
There are smaller plant breeders. Choudhary Abhay in Khatasans village sits in his ginning mill fanning himself. He though never admits he has made Bt, he agrees that it is being done in every plant breeder’s farm. His brand Virat is sold in nearby areas. After all, what is needed is a few acres of land, a few children familiar with the technique of segregation and a handful of parent seeds.
What went wrong? Is our regulatory mechanism so poor that any and every plant breeder with above-average intelligence can break the law with impunity? ‘‘The GEAC has mixed up its role. It is only supposed to clear the gene and the rest should be left to the farmers. They will grow what is beneficial to them,’’ said Sharad Joshi, founder of Shetakari Sangathana, a farmers group.
It is a predictable but lethal sequel to events two years back when Gujarat produced the ‘Robinhood of Biotechnology’, D B Desai. He was found selling unapproved genetically modified version of BT cotton seeds even as Mahyco Monsanto Biotech’s Bollgard was undergoing laborious trials for seven years.
‘‘Now there is a Desai in every house and Bt seeds in every farm,’’ said a smug farmer V B Patel in Mansa, heart of Northern India’s cotton seed-belt.
It started in 2001 when the government watched helplessly as farmers exulted over Desai’s Navbharat 151 flourishing while the rest of the cotton crop succumbed to a catastrophic pest attack. Inspite of Genetic Engineering Approval Committee’s (GEAC) order to burn these crops, the government, fearing the ‘‘law and order’’ situation, let matters pass.
The result was that when the controversy erupted, Desai went underground and hundreds of farmers in Andhra Pradesh who had contracts to produce Navbharat 151 sold these parental lines to plant breeders who rushed from Gujarat smelling a gold mine. Nearly all the original breeders would have saved some in their house out of sheer habit.
Now once the parent seed is with a plant breeder, any small farmer’s child in these parts will tell you it is no rocket science to develop a home-grown Bt seed — just segregate the male and female seeds, take the Bt male and cross it with a robust female variety.
This is one scenario that the GEAC failed to anticipate as they gave approval to only Bollgard. Scientists now are arguing that GEAC should have limited themselves to only clearing the gene — Bt. The mushrooming hybrids were a foregone conclusion in the Indian scenario where farmers are known to save seeds and experiment.
Mahyco can only complain to the GEAC and not sue these companies as the patent law on the process on the generic product is yet to come into effect in India. This phenomenon is similar to what Shanta Biotech did with the Hepatitis B drug in India — it managed to come out with a cheaper drug than the one sold by a multinational by just altering the process.
With a bit of persistence, one can buy one of the 10 brands available — Rakshak, Maharakshak, Viraat, Agni or simply 151. In addition, there is also the F2 variety that is second generation of Navbharat 151 that though will have a lesser percentage of Bt expression but still gives 75 per cent of the higher yield.
‘‘The biggest danger is that with all kinds of Bt hybrids including the second- and third-generation ones, the Bt expression will come down and pests will develop resistance faster,’’ said P K Ghosh who was former adviser to the Department of Biotechnology.
This year, the state government is once again turning a blind eye to the blatant violation of laws on handling of GMOs. Apart from a few token raids, there has been little to stop them. Even farmers groups are supporting these ‘‘traditionally bred’’ varieties over the legally approved multinational Monsanto’s Bollgard.
‘‘It is impossible to control something at this large a scale. When we go to the fields, we become targets for trying to take away a beneficial technology from farmers,’’ said A K Dixit, Director of Agriculture.
Desai enjoys a demi-God status among farmers as he is the one who brought the technology to them at an affordable rate (he was selling at Rs 400 per 450 gms while Bollgard is for Rs 1,600), never mind if it was unapproved. These days he is lying low, barely keeping his other seed business afloat. It is the small-time plant breeders and enterprising businessmen who have taken the baton and, with a bit of ingenuity, are cashing in on the demand created by Desai.
In his first-ever interview, Desai told The Indian Express: ‘‘I am happy that at least the farmers are getting the technology at a cheap rate. It doesn’t matter if others are making money at my cost.’’ At his office in Ahmedabad, he still gets hundreds of calls asking for his Navbharat 151.
He still is hopeful that the government will recognise that that his seeds are good and consider it for approval ‘‘in the interest of the farmers’’. Some of these Robinhoods are more organised — they are actually packaging it, the others are merely putting seeds in white cloth bags and selling it at exorbitant rates, just a little below Bollgard’s rates to farmers.
The situation is alarming to say the least, considering Bollgard was approved with a long list of dos and don’ts in the summer of 2001 after a lot of soul-searching by the government. This was in the face of severe opposition from environmental groups on environmental and bio-safety grounds. GEAC directed Mahyco to maintain list of dealers, get feedback from farmers, have detailed directions on how to plant it and even put a condition that there would be five rows of non-Bt as refuge.
Contrast this cautious approach to what is happening at the ground level in Gujarat — nearly 70 per cent of the state’s 1.5 lakh hectares is going to be planted with Bt and those in the business say that the approved variety of Mahyco is going to as less as 10 per cent.
The rest will go to unapproved ones sold under the counter or when jeeps loaded with these seeds come in the dead of the night to do business worth lakhs of rupees. On investigation, farmers in Gauridal village in Rajkot district show the orange-coloured packet of Rakshak. It gives no address of any manufacturer but quotes a section of the Seed Act that allows farmer-farmer exchange of seeds. It is,
however, sold at Rs 1,300 per 450 gms. Inspite of the absence of any address, every farmer in the area knows where it is coming from — a Junagarh-based businessman Nattubhai Makaria. Makaria was till last year in the pesticide business and has employed some of the best plant breeders to make Rakshak.
The male is the same as Navbharat 151 while the female is of a local variety. He was clearly one of those who went and bought the parental lines just after the controversy flared-up. He has come out with another hybrid called Maharakshak this year. He is cashing in on the faith he enjoys with the local farmers.
There is another plant breeder, PhD from Gujarat Agriculture University and now running his own seed shop known as ‘‘Dr’’ Dholaria. It is difficult to catch him as he is touring the Saurashtra countryside, organising demonstration for his brand called Sarathi.
There are smaller plant breeders. Choudhary Abhay in Khatasans village sits in his ginning mill fanning himself. He though never admits he has made Bt, he agrees that it is being done in every plant breeder’s farm. His brand Virat is sold in nearby areas. After all, what is needed is a few acres of land, a few children familiar with the technique of segregation and a handful of parent seeds.
What went wrong? Is our regulatory mechanism so poor that any and every plant breeder with above-average intelligence can break the law with impunity? ‘‘The GEAC has mixed up its role. It is only supposed to clear the gene and the rest should be left to the farmers. They will grow what is beneficial to them,’’ said Sharad Joshi, founder of Shetakari Sangathana, a farmers group.