GEAC recommends environmental release of GM mustard

27 Oct 2022 , 07:26 AM

The Union Environment Ministry’s Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee has endorsed releasing genetically modified mustard into the environment, opening the door for its commercial production, according to experts.

Green organizations are opposed to the plan, claiming that the commercial production of GM mustard could have a negative effect on people’s health and food security.

The country’s regulatory body for genetically modified organisms, the GEAC, recommended the “environmental release of mustard hybrid DMH-11 for its seed production and testing as per existing ICAR guidelines and other extant rules/regulations before commercial release,” according to the minutes of the meeting on October 18.

The Delhi University Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants (CGMCP) created the transgenic mustard hybrid DMH-11.

Only one GM crop, Bt cotton, has been allowed for commercial cultivation by the government as of this writing (in 2002).

Those who favour the commercial cultivation of GM crops claim that its advantages include better food security because of higher yields, lower food production costs, less need for pesticides, and resistance to disease and pests.

The Coalition for a GM-Free India said in a statement on Wednesday that “this violates biosafety in major and undesirable ways, and we ask the government not to proceed with permitting this hazardous herbicide-resistant food crop in India.”

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