BIO WAR ??????

"The Indian people are far better fed on average than in the past, but 2.7 million children still die in India every year, 60 percent of them from diseases linked to malnutrition (Sharma 1999). A leading cause of malnutrition in India is poverty, and in rural areas a leading cause of poverty is low productivity in agriculture. Of the nation’s one billion people, two thirds still gain their livelihood from farming, and seventy five percent of India’s farmers are disadvantaged, with one hectare of land or less (Swaminathan 1999). Meanwhile continued population growth continues to increase the burden on Indian agriculture year after year.

The productivity of Indian agriculture improved in the 1990s compared to the 1980s, as the annual rate of growth of value added in farming increased from 3.1 percent to 3.8 percent, or roughly twice the nation's rate of growth of population (World Bank 2000). Poorly managed government marketing policies occasionally generated embarrassing public stocks of food, including 27 million tons of surplus wheat at the end of 2000. Yet the impression of national food abundance was misleading. During the decade of the 1990s, total food grain production in India did not increase at all on a per capita basis, and 230 million Indians remained food-insecure due to persistent poverty, linked most often to the low productivity of their agricultural resources.

Solving India's poverty and hunger problems will require more than just a boost in farm productivity, of course. A number of other issues will also have to be addressed, including persistent rural illiteracy, social marginalization, landlessness, and caste or gender discrimination. Even where low farm productivity is the problem, GM crop technologies might not be the solution. On India's drylands, where farm productivity is low in part due to poor soil fertility or scant rainfall, the GM technologies currently in use provide few new options to address such problems. India’s poorest farmers are those that live in dryland areas with less than 750 mm of rainfall a year who lack an ability to irrigate their crops. Non-irrigated farming in India still accounts for 67 percent of total cultivated area, and supports 40 percent of the population, plus two thirds of the nation’s livestock. Average grain yields on non-irrigated land in India are only 0.7 to 0.8 tons per hectare, which is only one third the yield level on irrigated land (Singh and Venkateswarlu 1999). With yields on irrigated land now plateauing, India has little choice but to seek new technical solutions for its low-production farmers in dry, rainfed areas. In India 80 percent of millets and pulse crops are grown under rainfed conditions, and roughly 50 percent of rice is rainfed.

GM crops might seem an unlikely solution for farmers in hot drought-prone regions, since it has been far easier so far to engineer crops for specific resistances to pests or disease than to engineer the multi-gene traits needed to provide greater resistance to drought or heat. Yet India’s producers of dryland crops (such as sorghum, groundnut, or pigeon pea) also face severe pest and disease problems, along with problems such as drought or heat. For groundnuts and pigeonpea, crop losses to biotic stress are actually greater than losses to abiotic stress (ICRISAT 1992). Pigeonpea farmers can sometimes lose their entire crop through damage from a single insect. Pod borers attack all pulses, and viral diseases are a widespread blight on India's dryland crops. Small dryland cotton farmers in India are devastated by bollworm infestations. Together with conventional breeding programs and improved training in integrated pest management (IPM), genetic engineering might help provide solutions to these biotic stress problems facing India's poorest farmers."

Wow look the concern of Mr.Robert Paarlberg an ag-biotech expert article on GM crops, part of a us based MNC who is producing GM seeds.

"India’s biotech regulator Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) had cleared Bt brinjal for regular agriculture purposes in October last year.Bt brinjal is a genetically modified brinjal developed by Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds. It has been created by inserting gene from the soil bacterium bacillus thuringiensis into brinjal, which is said to give the plant resistance against insect pests."

Maharaj Kishen Bhan, secretary, department of biotechnology said eminent scientists had examined the science behind Bt brinjal and had concluded that it was “absolutely safe for science and environment”.Bhan noted that regulation of genetically modified products was done by Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM) and GEAC. “RCGM has 30 members. Thirty best scientists who understand science and regulation. They have cleared it and said that the data they have is sufficient to allay safety and environment concerns,” he said. “As scientists, our position is very clear that we concur with the decision of RCGM and GEAC about safety and health issues,”

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research director general Samir Brahmachari said "farmers will benefit from the use of genetically modified brinjal.He said every year brinjal crop worth over Rs 1,000 crore is lost to insect attacks."

Why lots of noise on BT brinjal, didn’t Monsanto and Mahyco paid the opposing parties well?

They should have learnt the approach from their counter part who used India as a test ground for GM cotton.

Did any one of you know that GM crops are already in India, this is not the first of its case.

Later in 2004 GM cotton was introduced in India, On 03/05/06 a report was issued by ISIS

"At least 1 820 sheep were reported dead after grazing on post-harvest Bt cotton crops; the symptoms and post-mortem findings strongly suggest they died from severe toxicity.This latest report confirms the findings of an earlier fact-finding investigation, also conducted by civil society organisations, on illnesses in cotton farm workers and handlers caused by Bt cotton in another cotton-growing state, Madhya Pradesh, in India And not so long ago.

Grazing lands in Warangal district have declined steeply as commercial crop cultivation expanded in recent years, and it has become customary for sheep and goats to be allowed to graze on crop residues after harvest.

This year, there have been several media reports of sharp increases in the deaths of sheep and goats after grazing in Bt cotton fields. There were similar reports in 2005, when complaints were lodged with the Joint Director of Agriculture by a few NGOs, but no action has resulted.

The Ippagudem village in Ghanapur mandal has 100 households belonging to the shepherd community. Forty shepherds and ten farmers attended the group meeting when the team visited. They said the deaths began after their sheep grazed on Bt cotton leaves or bolls. This year was the first time some of the shepherds and farmers cultivated Bt cotton hybrids, believing in the propaganda that they can get more yield and profit. They started grazing from the end of January to March. The deaths began within a week of continuous grazing on the Bt cotton crop residues. Mr. J. Parmesh, one of the shepherds got diarrhoea after consuming the affected sheep's meat."

Its cool na?

Let me come to the technology behind the BT. Bt toxins are derived from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringenesis. The actual process is injecting gene of BT into brinjal. Which in term help the brinjal to resist against insects. Actually speaking as bacteria is a parasite this process happens by nature itself. But not on all the plants. That is reason for most of the peoples are allergic to brinjal.

My actual concern is, a business man who is claiming a patent for a process which is already happening by nature. You many ask what’s the issue.We allow BT brinjal , it will bring lots of gain to farmers. As the world is running behind money, all the farmers will start to use this. After some time other variants of brinjal will be out of market like the natural manures.

On that time those MNC will control the cost of food items in India, do we expect this? The so called independence will be only in papers.

There is one more serious background for this, I see this as a BIO WAR on India. How????????

As most of you have studied about pollination. There are two types of pollination one is self and other is cross . Not all the plants and trees are capable of doing self pollination. Most of the plants need help of natures genetic engineers (insects) for pollination.

By introducing these kind of crops we are not only killing the insects which are damaging the crops but also the insects which are helping plants for pollination. with out pollination there is no more fruits, seeds. we need to relay on crops which are capable of self pollination. At that time it will be only GM crops and all are patent controlled.And also they will be selling the pollination techniques.

Be aware , Be ready for a BIO WAR.