GM CROPS - How to Plant the Future
C D Mayee
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India faces a massive challenge to feed its growing population, particularly in the absence of sustainable agriculture solutions. According to the UN World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision, India's population is expected to surpass China's by 2022.A combination of factors like climate change, increasing industrialisation, urbanisation and new pests and diseases coupled with regulatory challenges have connived to bring about increasing pressure on our farms over the years, limiting their capability to enhance production, especially on small land holdings as prevalent in India.
With regular droughts or floods affecting the country , productivity is taking a heavy toll and India's already bulging food import bill is likely to reach crippling proportions.
To increase farmers' income without inflationary pressure on the economy , we need to increase our productivity urgently . Technology has played a vital role in most sectors to improve quality of life, as well as the productivity of products and services. The same should apply to agriculture.
While most agriculturally advanced countries are adopting rigorously tested and proven genetically modified (GM) technology in agriculture, India has been comparatively regressive. Bangladesh has wholeheartedly embraced GM technology to resolve declining productivity by putting in place an encouraging policy environment. It has not only commercialised India's Bt Brinjal technology three years ago, but it is also at an advanced stage of field trials in other crops including Golden Rice and Late Blightresistant potato. The Philippines and Vietnam, too, are actively pursuing GM crop cultivation.
All this is possible only with government support for science and technology and free market trade. However, in India, there is a huge resistance to this technology . The furore caused by various anti-science voices have continued to discourage innovation as well as commercialisation of this promising technology . Adding to this uncertainty are the recent regulatory developments in respect of crop biotech that have the potential to stifle the flow of modern technologies to farm.
The cotton price control and compulsory licensing guidelines for GM crops proposed have already done enough damage to India's image as a technology-friendly nation. These proposals have not only discouraged R&D and innovation professionals and investors, but also the student community who want to pursue fulfilling careers in agri-biotechnology .
The Indian agri-biotech industry is suffering due to the vested interests of one influential seed industry player misusing the system. As the proposal of compulsory licensing guidelines faced stiff opposition from various corners and from key stakeholders, it appears that through the National Seed Association of India (NSAI), attempts are now being made to indirectly interfere in the intellectual property rights (IPR) regime and compulso ry licensing of GM crops through the convoluted reading of the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act (PPVFRA), 2001.
This act won't protect the interest of companies involved in R&D of modern and safe technologies like GM crops. So, they should continue to be guided by the current patent law of the country . PPVFRA is designed for an altogether different purpose: that of protecting varieties.
Hence, playing up this legislation against the Patent Act for the narrow benefit of a few seed companies to appropriate technology without the obligation of paying fees for accessing the technology is a travesty of India's innovation protection system.
The PPVFRA cannot override the Patents Act. Any contrary argument will have a severe ramification not only on Indian agriculture but also on the government's policies to encourage technology transfer and innovation in the farm sector that still employs over 50% of country's workforce.
The government must look at this Act on the basis of plant varieties and its protection for which it was framed, much before GM crops came into India. It shouldn't allow vested interests to misinterpret and misuse this Act.
No country has progressed when innovations are curbed and the free market is stifled. In today's global environment, where public-private partnerships are encouraged for achieving development goals, it is disheartening that in India, we are pursuing a regressive policy at the cost of longterm interest of our small and marginal farmers.
The government must listen to industry associations and experts who have been criticising the cotton price control and compulsory licensing notification. It must intervene to ensure its decisions are broad-based and in the long-term interest of farmers, consumers, industry and the economy .
Source: Times of India, 17-10-2016
With regular droughts or floods affecting the country , productivity is taking a heavy toll and India's already bulging food import bill is likely to reach crippling proportions.
To increase farmers' income without inflationary pressure on the economy , we need to increase our productivity urgently . Technology has played a vital role in most sectors to improve quality of life, as well as the productivity of products and services. The same should apply to agriculture.
While most agriculturally advanced countries are adopting rigorously tested and proven genetically modified (GM) technology in agriculture, India has been comparatively regressive. Bangladesh has wholeheartedly embraced GM technology to resolve declining productivity by putting in place an encouraging policy environment. It has not only commercialised India's Bt Brinjal technology three years ago, but it is also at an advanced stage of field trials in other crops including Golden Rice and Late Blightresistant potato. The Philippines and Vietnam, too, are actively pursuing GM crop cultivation.
All this is possible only with government support for science and technology and free market trade. However, in India, there is a huge resistance to this technology . The furore caused by various anti-science voices have continued to discourage innovation as well as commercialisation of this promising technology . Adding to this uncertainty are the recent regulatory developments in respect of crop biotech that have the potential to stifle the flow of modern technologies to farm.
The cotton price control and compulsory licensing guidelines for GM crops proposed have already done enough damage to India's image as a technology-friendly nation. These proposals have not only discouraged R&D and innovation professionals and investors, but also the student community who want to pursue fulfilling careers in agri-biotechnology .
The Indian agri-biotech industry is suffering due to the vested interests of one influential seed industry player misusing the system. As the proposal of compulsory licensing guidelines faced stiff opposition from various corners and from key stakeholders, it appears that through the National Seed Association of India (NSAI), attempts are now being made to indirectly interfere in the intellectual property rights (IPR) regime and compulso ry licensing of GM crops through the convoluted reading of the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act (PPVFRA), 2001.
This act won't protect the interest of companies involved in R&D of modern and safe technologies like GM crops. So, they should continue to be guided by the current patent law of the country . PPVFRA is designed for an altogether different purpose: that of protecting varieties.
Hence, playing up this legislation against the Patent Act for the narrow benefit of a few seed companies to appropriate technology without the obligation of paying fees for accessing the technology is a travesty of India's innovation protection system.
The PPVFRA cannot override the Patents Act. Any contrary argument will have a severe ramification not only on Indian agriculture but also on the government's policies to encourage technology transfer and innovation in the farm sector that still employs over 50% of country's workforce.
The government must look at this Act on the basis of plant varieties and its protection for which it was framed, much before GM crops came into India. It shouldn't allow vested interests to misinterpret and misuse this Act.
No country has progressed when innovations are curbed and the free market is stifled. In today's global environment, where public-private partnerships are encouraged for achieving development goals, it is disheartening that in India, we are pursuing a regressive policy at the cost of longterm interest of our small and marginal farmers.
The government must listen to industry associations and experts who have been criticising the cotton price control and compulsory licensing notification. It must intervene to ensure its decisions are broad-based and in the long-term interest of farmers, consumers, industry and the economy .
Source: Times of India, 17-10-2016
