The biotech industry has lashed out at a report of a technical expert committee (TEC) appointed by the supreme court to look into the issue of genetically modified crops as it suggests the witholding of field trials until a sounder biosafety framework is led. The industry termed the report "regressive and biased".

“The industry believes the TEC report besides being incomplete is also anti-science and anti-research and will severely dent the future of country's farmers besides destroying the domestic private and public sector research…This recommendation, if accepted by the Supreme Court, will put our agricultural research back by decades and will severely hamper progress,” says Ram Kaudinya, chairman of the association of biotech led enterprises - agriculture group (ABLE-AG).

The industry also complained that the Sc report was not complete. “This report by four members of TEC can't be considered complete as Dr RS Paroda's submission directly to the SC is yet to be made public,” said N Seetharama, executive director, ABLE-AG.

Some of the specific recommendations of the TEC include: ·

There should be a moratorium on field trials for Bt in food crops (those that are directly used for food) intended for commercialisation (not research) until there is more definitive information from sufficient number of studies as to the long term safety of Bt in food crops. ·

On Herbicide Tolerant (HT) crops, it said, “HT crops would most likely exert a highly adverse impact over time on sustainable agriculture, rural livelihoods, and environment. The TEC finds them completely unsuitable in the Indian context.” ·

On the genetic modification of crops for which India is a centre of origin like rice, Brinjal, mustard etc the TEC recommended “that release of GM crops for which India is a centre of origin or diversity should not be allowed”.

The biotech industry body said at a time when India needs improvement in technology, its policies should not be anti-farmer and anti-agriculture.

“India’s agricultural productivity still ranks far below the best in the world, and reluctance to deploy novel and new technologies will have a far-reaching adverse impact denying Indian farmers and the domestic seed industry new technologies,” said the statement of ABLE-AG.