NEW DELHI: Clive James, founder of the U.S.-based non-profit International Service For the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), spoke on the global release of a report on BT crops Thursday. Addressing a teleconference from the U.S., he said the setting up of an insect resistant management scheme by India was a prudent precaution on the lines of Australia. There has been concern that BT crops could create a new set of pests immune to available pesticides. James said, "I believe the development of pests resistant to pesticides is a real issue and it is well to have a mechanism in place to look after that aspect." In India some 54,000 farmers have started BT cotton cultivation in around 45,000 hectares. Most Indian farmers have small land holdings, many of them less than one hectare. Other than BT cotton, India is still to take a decision on commercial cultivation of other biotech crops like mustard, potato, tomato and corn. In the Asian region, the Philippines is the first country to have approved BT corn for commercial cultivation. This crop is meant only for animal feed. The report released by James says the global acreage of BT crops continues to show double-digit growth, with nearly six million farmers in 16 countries opting for it despite the concerns of scientists and environmentalists on their safety and long-term impact. "More than three-quarters of the farmers who switched over were resource poor farmers in developing countries," said James. He, however, agreed that BT crops could not be looked at as the sole answer to eliminating hunger and meeting the global need for food, feed and fibre. While nine Asian countries, with China leading in BT cotton production, have adopted biotech crops, only seven developed nations including the U.S., Canada, Australia, Bulgaria and Germany have started commercial cultivation of genetically modified high-yielding varieties of crops.
Source: IANS