Gene Campaign on Genetic Engineering in Agriculture

Gene Campaign is concerned about the pervasiveness of the argument put forth by the Agbiotech sector that GE crops are the solution to hunger and poverty, although it is well recognised that people are hungry because they lack productive assets like land water to grow their food or incomes to buy it.

Since the technology is largely privately owned, unlike the Green Revolution which was a public technology, there is concern about whose interests it is serving. For a country where agriculture is the livelihood of 70 crore farm families and which has concerns about food and nutrional security, the creation of public goods through public technologies is an imperative.

We are alarmed at the cavalier manner in which agbiotechnology is being promoted in the country , without public consultations even with top level science bodies . We are particularly alarmed at the lack of transparency  and accountability in the regulatory system which is bureaucratic and lacks the technical competence to take decisions in a complex technological field. Our demand has been to frame a National Biotechnology Policy and restructure the regulatory bodies to make them more capable.

Gene Campaign believes there should be more public involvement in making decisions about research priorities and that cost and risk benefit analyses must be held before approving  GE crops. In our view research funds must be carefully prioritised so that conventional, systems based agricultural research gets the bulk of the funds since it continues to deliver almost all the new seeds and crop improvement systems.  We believe that the way ahead for Indian agriculture is to emphasise organic production rather than GE crops, simply because organic markets are growing and markets for GE produce are diminishing.

Our view is  that patents should not be allowed on genes or other plant parts because these are discoveries, not inventions. Granting monopolies on essential biological entities will restrict Indian research and hinder finding solutions to our agriculture problems. The Farmers Right contained in the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Act must be brought into force.

Gene Campaign is working to ensure a more inclusive, stringent and transparent system of evaluating and authorising GE crops, based on the precautionary approach and taking into account  socioeconomic factors . It is campaigning for more rigorous testing procedures to study environmental and health impacts of GE crops. GC is working on a framework for a liability and redress regime so that farmers are compensated if a GE technology goes wrong or contaminates natural or  organic crops and so that the technology provider is made to pay for cleaning up environmental and health damage.