A vegetable is at the centre of a row in Orissa as it is likely to become the first genetically-modified (GM) foodcrop to be permitted for commercial production in the country. While anti-GM activists in the state and elsewhere are furious at the insufficient data on the safety aspects of the crop, Bt (bacillus thuringiensis) brinjal seeds are likely to be sown in Orissa sometime next month as part of the countrywide field trials of Varanasi-based Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (IIVR).

The seeds of Bt brinjal developed by Mumbai-based Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company, a subsidiary of multinational seed major Monsanto, contain a foreign gene, cry1Ac, derived from a soil bacteria, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). The toxin-producing gene from the bacteria kills fruit and shoot borer (FSB), the most common insect pest that devours about 50 per cent of brinjal crop in the country. Its incorporation into brinjal is said to be toxic to FSB and thus reduces reliance on pesticides.

Though the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) of the Union Forest and Environment Ministry in August 2007 granted permission for large-scale field trials of Bt brinjal at 11 locations, including the Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) in Bhubaneswar, under the direct supervision of IIVR, officials of the Orissa Government say they had no clue about it.

Orissa officials claim they came to know about OUAT being the site of field trials only when the GEAC in May this year wrote to the university’s vice-chancellor. The university is now waiting for the criteria of the test as well as funds from the IIVR to begin a belated trial over a 2,000 sq m plot in Bhubaneswar.

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