There is progress on GM food crops, says DBT

Supreme Court hearings on GM crops progress, DBT supports GM mustard, BioE3 policy focus, bio-agriculture growth in India.

Ahead of a fresh series of hearings in the Supreme Court next month over genetically modified (GM) food crops, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) said there was “progress” on this front.

“The matter is sub judice but GM mustard stories are being taken up again,” DBT Secretary Rajesh Gokhale said at a biotechnology event on Friday. The DBT, which has for years funded research and development into transgenic and GM food crops, comes under the Ministry of Science and Technology.

At present, Bt cotton is the only genetically modified crop allowed to be cultivated. Though the Environment Ministry gave its conditional go-ahead for commercial cultivation of GM mustard in 2022, it has not taken off as it was challenged in the Supreme Court.

Science Minister Jitendra Singh who was also at the event, said, “There is so much dynamism in biotechnology development that we cannot look at tomorrow through the prism of today.”

On March 6, a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court said it will begin hearing from April 15 petitions challenging the Environment Ministry’s approval for cultivation of GM mustard. The court has told all parties to file their written submissions within a week.

A two-judge Bench of the top court, on July 23, 2024, gave a split verdict on the validity of the Centre’s 2022 decision granting conditional approval for the environmental release of GM mustard crop. However, it also directed the Centre to formulate a “national policy” on GM crops.

Mr. Gokhale told The Hindu that the DBT had provided “technical inputs” to the Union Environment Ministry, which was formulating the policy and was the “nodal coordinator”.