China is always held up as an example by people in government in the matter of genetically modified (GM) crop adoption. Those who question the implementation of genetically engineered crops in India are told to look at how China is racing ahead in transgenic technology, how it is rapidly bringing GM crops into the field and putting millions of acres under Bt cotton, GM paprika and GM tomatoes. “What’s wrong with you people? Look at China” is the refrain. So, are there lessons to be learnt from China? Yes, there are, but not the ones the authorities think.

It is true that China is planning the cultivation of high-yielding and pest-resistant GM crops as part of its plan to achieve “agricultural sustainability”. At a meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao, Chinese leaders said the agbiotech plan was of “strategic significance” in the country’s drive to make its agricultural sector more efficient. This certainly signals the growing importance of transgenic crops in China’s national strategy for agriculture and food production. Yet, China is scripting its GM story very differently to the mindless way in which the Indians are doing it.

Unlike India, China has policy that protects the national interest in the agbiotech sector. In the seed sector, it makes it mandatory that in a joint venture the Chinese party will hold majority shares and control the production of seeds. China bans foreign investment in the development of GM crops. In India, on the other hand, any number of multinational corporations operate independently in the GM seed sector. Mahyco and Monsanto are equal partners in the agbiotech company called Mahyco Monsanto Biotech India Ltd and Monsanto even owns 26 per cent of the parent company, Mahyco Seeds.

China has a policy of self-reliance in the matter of new technologies, especially agriculture technologies. Much of China’s Bt cotton is planted with varieties it has developed without using Monsanto’s Bt genes. The result is that China’s Bt cotton cultivators do not end up paying huge amounts of money as licence fees for the use of the Bt gene. In India, over 40 per cent of all the GM crops are being developed using the Cry1Ac and Cry1Ab genes owned by Monsanto. The result is that licence fees of nearly Rs 1,200 are paid on a bag of Bt cotton seeds.

Unlike India, where Bt cotton and other Bt crops are being introduced as hybrids, the Bt cotton in China is produced as a true breeding variety. Because true varieties produce viable seeds that can be used generation after generation, farmers can save seed from their harvest to plant the next crop. They do not have to face the burden of buying new seed every year as they would have to do with hybrids that cannot be reused. Hybrids produce seeds that cannot be replanted because they are not viable. In India, the government has allowed Mahyco and Monsanto to produce Bt cotton only as hybrids. This ensures that the farmer cannot save seed from his harvest to plant the next crop. The government’s policy thus ensures maximum profits for the company. Apart from the cost burden is the fact that for scientific reasons, true varieties of Bt cotton are more effective at controlling pests than the hybrids. In sum, China produces Bt cotton as a true variety so that its farmers benefit and India produces Bt cotton hybrids so that multinationals benefit.

Most interesting, however, is China’s approach to GM rice. Despite its high level focus on transgenic crops, the Chinese are hesitant about the commercial release of GM rice. Top-level policymakers in China concede that even though China has become a major producer of GM cotton and vegetables such as peppers and tomatoes, it has to be “cautious” in pursuing large-scale production of GM rice. Top officials are quoted as saying, “As rice is a major grain for China and no country in the world applies transgenic technology to its major grains, it should be cautious in developing transgenic rice.” Compare this with India’s cavalier attitude to not just its “major grains” but also to crops for which it is a centre of origin, like rice.

In India, the gung ho manner in which Bt rice, Bt brinjal and Bt okra, along with a host of other Bt crops are being readied for cultivation in farmers’ fields is a sharp contrast to the cautious approach of the allegedly aggressive promoters of transgenic crops in China, constantly held up by Indian authorities as worthy of emulation. The fact is that China is exercising caution, not India. India is the centre of origin, the birthplace of rice, but it is China that is treading cautiously on rice. India on the other hand is allowing careless field trials of Bt rice, guaranteed to contaminate the crop for the conservation and protection of which it carries a global responsibility.

It is perverse that even though China has made significant breakthroughs in research on transgenic rice, and is ready for commercialisation, it is holding back for a number of socio-economic reasons. Socio-economic considerations are a premise that India does not even acknowledge and refuses to admit such aspects in decision-making. As a true acolyte of the US, India, with its myriad socio-economic concerns, has neither regard for the precautionary principle nor for socio-economic concerns. It bases its decision-making on the indefensible US thesis that only “science-based” evidence counts.

Like rice is for us, China’s special crop is soybean, for which it is the centre of origin. With soybean, China adopts the precautionary principle and takes no risk. China has not only banned the cultivation of GM soybean, it does not allow its import either, except as ground meal which cannot escape into the environment and contaminate the natural soybean populations and the wild relatives of cultivated soybean. Contrast this with India’s attitude to its special crop rice for which it is the centre of origin. Several public and private sector labs are researching to create GM rice, with little regard for the implications of this move for India’s genetic wealth and its trade prospects.

No country in the world except India takes a risk with its special crops. Mexico, the centre of origin for corn, has a ban on GM corn despite the great pressure from its bullying neighbours to the north. Peru, the home of the potato, does not allow the cultivation or entry of GM potato and China does not allow GM soybean. India has not only allowed all manner of research with GM rice, it has also sanctioned field trials in Jharkhand, which, along with Orissa and Chhattisgarh, constitutes the region which houses the greatest genetic diversity of rice in the form of traditional varieties. India must learn lessons on protecting the national interest, not just from China but other countries as well.

Source : The Asian Age