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The private seed industry on Thursday called for a single framework for seed regulation with faster science-based approval of new varieties, traits, and technologies to boost the productivity of several crops, especially cotton, oilseeds, and pulses.
Ajai Rana, President, Federation of Seed Industry of India, said faster adoption of new technologies would be critical for boosting productivity of crops facing increasing climate-based challenges while the country is importing large quantities of these crops.
“In many areas, we are fast in adopting technologies such as UPI, but in the agriculture sector, we debate technology adoption a lot,” Rana stated, adding that while regulations for new technologies are necessary, farmers should be allowed to adopt the latest ones.
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Faster approval of new technologies would encourage companies to make long-term investments, he said at an event.
On the issue of adopting new technologies such as genome-editing, Rana said, “Whether genome-edited technology would replace genetically modified (GM) crops, both technologies should co-exist,” Rana said.
According to industry estimates, 60 countries grow genetically modified crops while about 120 countries consume GM crops.
Since the introduction of Bollgard-I, which was the country’s first GM crops approved for commercialisation in 2002, followed by Bollgard II, a pest-resistant variety which protects the crop from bollworm in 2006.
Since then no new cotton varieties have been introduced leading to stagnation in cotton production and an increase in imports. Cotton is the only GM crop approved for commercial cultivation in the country.
In 2024, the Supreme Court pronounced a split verdict on the validity of the government’s decision to grant conditional approval for the environmental release of GM mustards.
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In addition to the two genome-edited rice varieties – DRR Rice 100 (Kamala) and Pusa DST Rice 1—which boost yield by about 15-20% and are tolerant to salinity and water-saving, research is underway on 40 agri-horticultural crops at the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) and other national research institutions and universities.
The environment ministry, in a March 2022 notification, exempted certain types of genome-edited crops from the stringent biosafety regulations applicable to GM crops.
The ministry exempted site-directed nucleases (SDN) 1 and 2 genomes from rules 7–11 of the Environment Protection Act, thus avoiding a long approval process for GM crops through the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee.
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