State to decide on crop after agri varsities send info

Agriculture Minister Dileep Sanghani told The Indian Express that his ministry had recently received a letter from the Central government,seeking the state government’s opinion about commercial cultivation of the vegetable in the state.

“My ministry has approached all the four agricultural universities — Anand Agriculture University,Navsari Agriculture University,Junagadh Agriculture University and Sardar Patel Agriculture University — seeking information about bio-safety and health aspects pertaining to Bt brinjal,” Sanghani said,adding,“Once we receive information from all these universities,we will take a decision and submit it to the Central government.”

However,Head of Department of Agricultural Biotechnology at AAU,R S Phogat,told this newspaper that Bt brinjal consumption poses no health hazards. He said health-related tests had already been conducted by IIVR,and it has cleared it for consumption.

Asked why noted scientist and pioneer of biotechnology Pushp Bhargava opposed commercial cultivation of the genetically modified vegetable and was mobilising the agricultural scientists against it,Phogat said Bhargava recently visited AAU but he never opposed Bt brinjal. What he insisted was a few more tests prescribed by the Department of Biotechnology under the Union Ministry of Agriculture before taking any final decision,Bhargava said.

Phogat confirmed that his university had received the letter from the state government. He said scientists from his department had already conveyed their opinion to Minister of Environment and Forests (MoEF) Jairam Ramesh,on Tuesday.

“But we will formally submit our opinion to the state government on the issue,” he said.

Gujarat accounts for 10 per cent of the total brinjal production in the country. The controversy about Bt brinjal arose after Bhargava,a Supreme Court-appointed observer in the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee(GEAC) in MoEF,objected to bio-safety approval given to the crop.

According to him,the tests prescribed for bio-safety and health aspects were not proper and conducted in laboratories operated by private seed companies.

Bhargava’s opposition has put a further stay in the commercial cultivation of the crop and MoEF went with public hearing on the issue. One of them was held in Ahmedabad on Tuesday. Four more hearings are slated to be held in Nagpur,Bangalore,Chandigarh and Hyderabad.