Will brinjal be the first genetically modified food on your plate?

Of the nine transgenic food crops undergoing controlled field trials, brinjal is on the agenda of the country’s top regulatory body—for clearance for large-scale field trials.

Last week, Monsanto Mahyco Biotech (MMB), which is developing the hybrid, presented biosafety data from the field trials to the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), seeking permission for large-scale field trials.

Once cleared for field trials—the final set of trials for biosafety—commercial production of seeds could take upto two years.

There is another interesting aspect of Bt brinjal’s journey from the lab to the field. MMB has given the gene to public sector institutes free of cost to develop their own varieties under a USAID programme led by Cornell University, New York. This will ensure that farmers have a choice between hybrids and varieties—something anti-GM activists have been very critical of in case of cotton, where only hybrids are available.

A variety means farmers will be able to save the seed and use it the following year, thereby saving on costs. Seeds for a hybrid has to be purchased every year.

According to sources, the agreement between MMB and the public sector companies carries a stipulation that once the clearances are given, the transgenic and non-transgenic varieties will be sold at the same price, so even poor farmers can afford it.

“This is a new model which the company is trying out,” said M K Sharma of Mahyco, speaking at a conference organised by TERI on ‘Agriculture for food, nutritional security and rural growth’.

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