Plugging The Leak

Context: Export of about 500 tonnes of rice from India has triggered an uproar in several European countries citing it was genetically modified (GM) rice.

Issues with GM crops

• Scope for leakages: GM crops easily find their way to commercial cultivars before they were formally cleared.
  • Eg: Bt-brinjal and herbicide-tolerant cotton varieties detected in farmer fields without clearance.
  • Close connections between farmers and State agriculture universities complicates the process of trial plots segregation from farms.
• Governance gap – Confusion in regulation: Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee is the apex regulator of GM crops, but it mandated that trials of GM crops obtain permission from States.
• Questions of safety of GM crops as the long term and irrecoverable consequences of genetic modification in food system is still unclear.
• Risk of negatively impacting export potential: As the recent case, where, during a check by European Commission’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed of rice flour by French company Westhove, alleged that the export of about 500 tonnes of rice from India is genetically modified.
  • GM-free rice that is tagged as ‘organic rice’ is among India’s high-value exports worth ?63,000 crore annually.
  • Revenue Loss: American food products company Mars, fearing GM contamination, announced that it was recalling four of its product lines of ‘Crispy M&M’.
• Surge in tensions:  As developed countries are alleging that India is the point of origin of GM contamination but external affairs ministry alleges that the contamination has happened in Europe “to cut costs”.

Way forward

• Centre must rush to assuage importers that India’s produce is compliant with trade demands.
• Ensure that research in GM or non-GM, should not become a casualty in matters of export-quality compliance.