GM crops to reduce misery of farmers soon

It was a mistake and it is time for rectification. The genetically modified (GM) mustard crops trial has reached the final stage before the variety is allowed to be sold commercially. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had long back taken up the onus to replicate the Green Revolution of the 1960s in edible oils and vegetables, which are increasingly in demand.

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Allowing GM crops was critical to Modi's goal of boosting dismal farm productivity in India. Today, growing urbanization has been devouring arable land in a country, where there could approximately be 1.5 billion mouths to feed by 2030. With very little publicity, field trials for selected crops were resumed in August, 2014.

Earlier this year, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, pointed out that India’s agri-income could rise further with commercial introduction of GM crops, which would be drought tolerant, herbicide tolerant and use nitrogen more efficiently.

Extensive use of GM crops also means that farmers will no longer have to depend on rainfall and other vagaries of weather for agricultural yields. The biotech industry is very optimistic that Indian agriculture would be benefited greatly by GM crops and could also resolve some of the critical farming challenges farmers face in India. .

Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are among the key States to have allowed non-laboratory-based GM crop trials. Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are still against it and have banned the tests.