NEW DELHI: Citing uncertainty over the time frame for approvals of Genetically Modified (GM) food crops in India and the country’s intellectual property rights (IPR) landscape, two US-based companies have approached a committee of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to delay biosafety trials for transgenic maize.
The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) of the environment ministry reviewed the response received from Dow Agro Sciences and PHI Seeds Pvt Ltd regarding their decision to defer the conduct of 2nd year Biosafety Research Level (BRL-I) confined field trials with transgenic Maize hybrids in Punjab and Karnataka during the 2018 Kharif sowing season.
The BRL trials are required before large scale production and release of GM products into the environment.
“The Committee noted that key reasons for deferment of their decision to conduct BRL-I trial of Maize was due to the uncertainties in the time frame for approval of GM food/ feed crops and the IPR landscape in India,” noted the minutes of the meeting.
The Committee has directed the GEAC Secretariat to communicate to the companies that the liability on account of accidental release, leakage, theft, spillage, encroachment of genetically engineered (GE) material by any unauthorised persons, will be on the companies.
The GEAC also agreed to storage of the GE material by the company for one year only...The decision comes at a time when the ministry has deferred the release of GM Mustard while its impact on honey bees and other pollinators is being studies. Several scientists, farmer organizations, civil society groups have registered their concerns on grounds of insufficient research.