Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Sensible decision on Bt Brinjal introduction

Union Environment Minister has taken a sensible decision by saying no for now on introducing Bt Brinjal. The Govt. of India has rightly sought more research on Bt Brinjal. As political groups, scientists and farmer community are divided on introducing Bt Brinjal, the Government has taken a right stand on the issue by respecting the sentiment of the people. As research so far has been done by none other than the developers of Bt. Brinjal theselves and their findings smack of bias, Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh will now engage scientists of independent stature to do detailed research to find out the merits and demerits of Bt. Brinjal. Presently, there is complete confusion and chaos among farmer community as well as the people in the country as two sections of scientists give two contrary findings of Bt. Brinjal. Some say Bt. Brinjal is pest resistant and its comsumption by the public is not harmful and it is not health hazard and some say it is detrimental to environment, harmful to health and soil.Some scientists have been opposing it, arguing that the genes were toxic and would affect the health of the consumersThere is no doubt that by introducing the cultivation of Bt. Brinjal and it is also high yielding cultivation. But by accepting Bt. Brinjal, the farmers will have to be dependent for seeds on Multinationals. As there was intense opposition , Govt refused to give a go-ahead to commercial cultivation of Bt Brinjal, a genetically-modified version of the vegetable that is said to be more resistant to pests. The Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Kerala have opposed Bt Brinjal. Non-Congress ruled states of West Bengal, Orissa and Bihar accounted for 60 per cent of brinjal cultivation. They are opposed to Bt Brinjal.BJP Chief Ministers in states have already opposed introduction of Bt Brinjal.Bt Brinjal is a genetically-modified vegetable which is infused with Cry1Ac gene from a bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis to make the plant resistant to the fruit and shoot borers and certain pests.

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