Flourishing trade in spurious GM seeds adds to farmers’ woes

When Arvind Shinde (identify modified), a farmer from Aurangabad bought a bag of HT cotton seeds from a trader, he was sure of having a bumper crop. Even so, as seeds failed to germinate he realised that he was duped by the trader. But he could not register a police complaint or technique the Point out authorities for compensation.

Bt cotton is the only Genetically Modified crop accredited for business cultivation in India and, therefore, cultivation of other unapproved GM crops is banned.

But Shinde continue to wants to go forward with HT cotton and Bt brinjal cultivation. “HT seeds will give bumper crop and will assistance me to receive some income,” he says confidently. But it is not just Shinde, 1000’s of farmers are having GM seeds in the market place and lots of get duped.

Anil Ghanwat, President of Shetkari Sanghatana, the apex farmers’ body Maharashtra, alleges“Along with HT cotton, Bt brinjal, and now HT soya seeds are also in the black market place. The authorities has banned GM crops but GM seeds are offered in the market place and farmers are cultivating. About 25 per cent of Maharashtra’s cotton cultivation less than HT cotton. There is a multi-crore market place that is functioning in GM seeds and lots of organizations are by offering spurious GM seeds.”

Ghanwat added, “ The only option to help save farmers from bogus seed organizations is to allow the cultivation of GM crop”.

Last year the Union Ministry of Agriculture admitted in the Lok Sabha that several incidences of suspected open cultivation of Bt brinjal and HT cotton have been noted in Maharashtra, Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. The committee appointed by the Division of Biotechnology to investigate the manufacturing of Bt cotton seeds with unapproved genes discovered unapproved cotton was grown, on an regular, on fifteen per cent of the cotton-cultivable place in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana, and five per cent in Punjab during the 2017-eighteen time.

Farmers allege a nexus of authorities officers, seed organizations, traders and middlemen functioning in Gujarat, Telangana and Maharashtra which is enabling offer of banned GM seeds.

“The National Seed Association of India (NSAI) stands with India’s rules and not GM vigilantism. The unlawful spread of HT BT seeds is a malicious try to undermine our sovereignty and contaminate authorized cotton seed firms. We stand for new technological know-how, but not by means of unlawful means” explained Indra Shekhar Singh, Director – Coverage and Outreach, NSAI.

He added, “ Our member organizations have been the worst strike by this contamination, as fly-by-night time operators are sporadically planting HT seeds in their breeding fielding and thus generating them liable for legal prosecution We have by now observed circumstances in Maharashtra, Telengana, etc”. NSAI has appealed to the authorities again to get demanding actions versus these determined brokers, and also established a new parameter for seed ton contamination. NSAI added that Indian seeds organizations are the victims and not the culprits.