SOME CRITICAL QUESTIONS ON GM MUSTARD

SUMAN SAHAI

GM mustard is at the center of an animated discussion with the participation of a broad cross section of people including scientists and medical professionals. The reason is probably because GM mustard, unlike Bt cotton, is a food crop so it has provoked concerns and questions. This is a good sign because these new and transformative technologies must be subjected to rigorous debate and scrutiny before adoption.

So what is this GM mustard, and why is even the scientific community concerned about its relevance and safety? Technically known as DMH 11 or Dhara Mustard Hybrid 11, this is a genetically engineered crop which has used a special scientific process using the Bar-Barnase-Barstar gene system to create a hybrid mustard plant. The Bar gene confers the Herbicide Tolerant (HT) trait which makes the GM mustard  a herbicide tolerant (HT) crop.

DMH 11 is projected by its developers to be higher yielding than existing mustard varieties. This claim is challenged by mustard scientists who point out that varieties with higher yield are already in the market. Available data shows that the NON GM hybrids NDDB-DMH 1, NDDB DMH 3 and NDDB DMH 4 for instance have higher yields than the GM DMH 11.

Because of the fear that GM mustard could damage honeybees and hence honey production, the government body GEAC (Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee) had directed the developers of GM mustard to conduct tests on its impact on honeybees, other insect pollinators and soil microbial diversity.

But this direction was flouted in a shocking violation of government rules and permission was granted for the environmental release of GM mustard. This is not the way that risky new technologies should be adopted : by cutting corners and violating biosafety recommendations.

Even more worrying in my view is that fact that the GM mustard is a Herbicide Tolerant (HT) crop. The HT technology is designed to control weeds by spraying chemicals that kill plants. An HT crop is one in which a gene has been engineered to protect it from the herbicide. So a field of HT mustard can be sprayed with a herbicide which will kill all the surrounding biodiversity but not the HT mustard crop.

Using chemicals to control weeds in the large farms and labor deficit conditions of industrial countries may work but does this work for Indian farming ? Let’s see why not. Firstly, weeding is an income source in rural areas, especially for women. The HT trait is essentially a labour saving and hence a labour displacing trait which will deprive agriculture labour of income.

Weeds are considered a nuisance in the monoculture agricultural systems of industrial nations. Not so in India and other developing countries , many so called “weeds’’ are useful plants. Plants collected during weeding provide nutritious leafy greens, saag like bathua and chaulai for the farm family. So weeds provide food and nutrition at no cost. This access to free nutrition is one of the reasons why nutritional status is somewhat better among the rural poor than among the urban poor.

The plants collected during weeding that are not consumed by the family, serve as fodder for the livestock that rural families keep as additional food and income sources. India is a fodder deficit country and increasing fodder availability is one of the key concerns of the agricultural research system. Using HT crops like GM mustard and the accompanying herbicides will destroy the fodder plants that are available for free. This makes no sense at all.

In addition to the food and fodder that they provide, so called weeds are also the medicinal plants that rural families depend on for health and veterinary care. The introduction of HT crops would kill the surrounding vegetation and deprive rural communities of the medicinal plants which form the basis of indigenous healing traditions. It is well known that about 80% of rural communities across the world are dependent on medicinal plants and indigenous systems of medicine.  Destroying the vegetation around crop fields would deprive village communities of crucial health care opportunities especially when the formal system does not adequately address their health and veterinary care requirements.

Apart from this, using herbicide tolerant crops would make it impossible to do intercropping and mixed farming which is done to provide additional food and increased farm incomes. Traditionally farmers usually plant more than one crop in the field. Sugar cane for instance is interspersed with lentils or mustard and it is not uncommon to find farmers planting mustard along with wheat, to be harvested one after the other or linseed together with lentils. Mixed cropping is widely practiced, with differing combinations of crops depending on the region. Often farmers will grow crops like yams, ginger or vegetables on the bunds surrounding rice fields. Thus two or three kinds of produce are available from the field in the same season. This advantage would be lost if the package of herbicide tolerant crop varieties and herbicide use would be implemented.

Clearly, the adoption of HT technology in Indian agriculture is detrimental to our interests. The Technical Expert Committee appointed by the Supreme Court to provide expert advice on the matter of GM crops had in fact recommended a ban on the adoption of Herbicide Tolerant technology. The government must take heed.

 

Dr Suman Sahai is a scientist trained in genetics and chairperson of the Gene Campaign

 

Source: Times of India, 4 January, 2023