'Socio-economic impact study for Bt brinjal not done'

Committee recommendation has been ignored, ministry documents show

PTI | February 12, 2010


Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh
Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh

Though commercial release of genetically modified brinjal has been put on hold, documents made public by the government suggest a proposed study to assess the vegetable's need and possible socio-economic impact on farmers was never done.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests, according to documents available on its website, had set up a Bt brinjal Technical Review Committee early in 2007.

The committee evaluated numerous comments from various stakeholders vis-a-vis the biosafety data generated by Mahyco - the company which developed Bt brinjal.

The committee recognised the need of a large scale socio-economic impact assessment study and set up a three-member sub-committee to evaluate whether there was any ground-level requirement for the genetically modified brinjal at all.

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