Dr Deepak Pental is a distinguished genetic scientist who developed the genetically modified DMH-11 variety of Bt mustard. He was a former Professor of Genetics and Vice-Chancellor, the University of Delhi. In this interview with Jitendra Choubey, he says DMH-11 should be given a chance to make India self-sufficient in edible oil while dismissing the logic of activists as unscientific.
Does GM technology have the potential to solve the problem of hunger in the country?
Hunger problems arise from multiple reasons—lack of purchasing power and low food availability. India is self-sufficient in cereal grains but has a major deficit of legumes and edible oils. Increasing crop productivity with conventional breeding is not possible. GM technology could be of value in breeding crops with desirable characteristics to increase productivity.
What is the problem with traditional varieties of mustard and how DMH-11 addresses it?
The Indian gene pool of mustard is very narrow, so productivity is too low. GM DMH-11 is a hybrid between an Indian and an East European line. Its pollination control system provides hybrid seeds with high purity with the help of three transgenes - barnase, barstar and bar. Hybrids with higher yield than DMH-11 are already in the pipeline.
The three genes introduced in mustard have been used in rapeseed, a sister crop of mustard extensively grown in Canada (1996), US (2002) and Australia (2003). No ill effects have been reported either on the health of the consumers or on the environment of the growing countries.
Critics say GM mustard would promote the unchecked use of the dangerous glufosinate and harm the environment and human health. Please comment.
All pesticides, which include herbicides, insecticides and fungicides etc., are harmful in general and recommended doses have proven to be safe. GM hybrid DMH-11 has not been released for HT as the commercial trait. The use of herbicide glufosinate is neither needed nor has been permitted for use in the farmers’ fields. The use of the herbicide is approved only in the hybrid seed production plots where its use is essential. Farmers will follow the same package of practices for growing DMH-11 as with the non-GM varieties. False fears are being spread about the contamination of indigenous germplasm and the ability of the farmers to keep his/her own seed.
Why is the biosafety dossier related to DMH-11 not in the public domain?
All research on mustard at the University of Delhi has been through publicly funded organisations like the National Dairy Development Board and the Department of Biotechnology. Biosafety studies were carried out on the transgenic parental lines and hybrid DMH-11. The Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants, Delhi University applied to the GEAC (Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee), India’s regulatory body, on September 15, 2015, for environmental release. A 3,251-page dossier reporting all the biosafety studies was submitted to GEAC. Only after detailed review, the GEAC gave approval in 2022. The complete dossier was also made available at the MoEF&CC for inspection.
Critics say the data related to yields in the dossier are manipulated.
Time and again, activists have said that hybrid DMH-11 has no yield advantage, it has wrong comparators, varieties out-yield GM hybrid, trials were not conducted properly, and so on. All these allegations were investigated by a committee of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) and all were found to be mischievous and false.
Even promoters of golden rice, the world’s first GM food crop, claimed it would solve the world’s hunger problem. Yet, more people are starving than earlier. How would you react to it?
Golden rice was developed to take care of vitamin A deficiency, which is rampant in many parts of the world. Nobody ever claimed that golden rice would solve the global hunger problem. Anti-GM activists have tried to derail the environmental release of golden rice. Hence, its potential in taking care of vitamin A deficiency could not be realised. It was released only in the Philippines in 2021.