Activists to strengthen protests against GM mustard

The Sarson Satyagraha group points out that the variety is being released despite not meeting many standards of production

A group of activists, farmers’ leaders and scientists said here on Friday that they will strengthen the agitations against the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC)’s approval for the environmental release of GM mustard. The platform, named Sarson Satyagraha, said they will ensure that GM mustard cultivation does not end up being an irreversible and unaccountable misadventure.

Addressing reporters, the group, including Dhiraj Singh, former director of the Directorate Of Rapeseed Mustard Research, Bharatpur, farmers’ leader Yudhvir Singh, and activist Kavitha Kuruganti, said regulatory decision-making has sacrificed scientific rigour and the Environment Ministry appears to have abandoned responsible policy-making when it comes to a “dangerous” herbicide-tolerant GM food crop.

They argued that GM mustard has not been proven to have any yield advantage for it to be granted an “environmental release” permission. “GM mustard commercial cultivation could in fact lower India’s productivity, if it ends up being sown in large areas,” they said, adding that GM mustard has not even proven itself to be an effective hybridisation technology.

They alleged that GM mustard testing has already compromised Indian Council of Agriculture Research guidelines for new varietal/hybrid research in India. “It has also compromised regulatory requirements on the transgenic front. Moreover, it has violated pesticides-related regulations too,” they said.

They reiterated the argument that GM mustard has not been tested as a herbicide tolerant crop. “Limited testing has been done of GM mustard with regard to its safety as well as efficacy. The limited safety tests done are already showcasing the lack of safety of GM mustard to the environment and human health,” they claimed. Scientists had recently said that GM mustard is not a herbicide tolerant variety.