Making a case for genetically-modified (GM) technology to boost farm output, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said scientists should not be denied the right to conduct field trials of such crops.

“We cannot afford to curtail the vigour of our scientific community and deny them the right to conduct trials, as has been done for some GM crops, despite being subjected to strictest controls of bio-safety,” Pawar told the 84th annual general meeting of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR).

Constrained by depleting natural resources, including arable land, Pawar said “We do not have any option but to try and achieve a major breakthrough in productivity to ensure food security of 1.2 billion plus population or our country”.

“The process of research should not be stopped as it would demoralise the scientific community,” he added.

Three years ago, the Government had put moratorium on the commercial release of Bt brinjal on safety concerns.

In August last year, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture had recommended that all field trials in GM crops should be discontinued forthwith.

The Agriculture Minister said ICAR must prioritise technologies towards the resource of poor farmers and enable them to take advantage of new technologies. “Equipping the farmer to tackle the climate change and erratic monsoon should be an important agendum” Pawar said. On the impact of recent rains on rabi crop, the Minister said “By and large, our report on wheat crop is quite good.

There is sudden change in weather, but we have not reached a situation to say there’s any damage to the crop”.

This year, the Government is expecting a wheat crop of 92.3 million tonnes against last year’s 94.88 mt.

>vishwanath.kulkarni@thehindu.co.in

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