There are only two main types of GM crops commercially available - herbicide resistant crops, the best known being Roundup Ready, and pest resistant Bt crops. These are supposed to make weed and pest management simpler.
A couple of days ago we posted an interview with a leading international expert on weed control who says the adoption of Roundup Ready crops across vast slices of the United States is already inexorably leading to herbicide-resistant weeds on a massive scale. He predicts the U.S. is likely to soon lead the world in the weed resistance stakes.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4892
And when it comes to Bt resistance, India looks set to soon be the world leader, according to research by Keshav Kranthi, a senior scientist at India's Central Institute for Cotton Research. (item1)
Kranthi's research, just published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, leads him to predict crop failures within the very near future - "it wouldn't be surprising to find Bt-cotton crop failures in some parts of India, starting with Gujarat in a couple of years from now."
His research model also predicts a further acceleration in the rate of resistance development in India if insects are exposed to another Bt crop in addition to Bt cotton, which brings us to item 2.
Meanwhile, items 3 and 4 bear testimony to the continuing grip of the bad idea virus on a number of India's politicians and bureaucrats. In the words of Joseph Cortright, a U.S. economist who co-wrote a report on the economic impact of biotech, "This notion that you lure biotech to your community to save its economy is laughable. This is a bad-idea virus that has swept through governors, mayors and economic development officials."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Asian_Economy/FG31Dk01.html
1.Indian Bt gene monoculture
2.Now, Bt cabbage
3.Pawar for more budgetary help to develop GM crops
4.Orissa releases draft biotech policy
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1.Indian Bt gene monoculture
February 11, 2005
Meridian Institute
K.S. Jayaraman, Jeffrey L. Fox, Hepeng Jia & Claudia Orellana
Nature Biotechnology 2005, Feb;23(2):158.
No abstract available. PMID: 15696133
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050131/full/nbt0205-158.html [subscription required]
[via agnet]
The increasingly widespread cultivation of Bt cotton in India could lead to the development of insect resistance within a few years, according to a model developed by Keshav Kranthi, a senior scientist at India's Central Institute for Cotton Research.
In a scenario in which two to three generations of insects are exposed each year to Bt cotton, Kranthi says, "If the area under Bt cotton gets to 70-80% in a 100-200 kilometer radius, our model estimates resistance development [in] 3-4 years."
Based on this finding, Kranthi says, "it wouldn't be surprising to find Bt-cotton crop failures in some parts of India, starting with [in the province of] Gujarat in a couple of years from now."
The area under Bt cotton carrying the Cry1Ac gene has grown rapidly in India since the crop's initial introduction in 2002. That growth appears to be continuing, according to Nature Biotechnology, with an unprecedented amount of Bt cotton expected to be planted in March of this year. No resistance breakdown has been observed in India so far.
The article says, however, that the risk of Bt resistance developing in India, where much of the Bt cotton crop is planted illegally, is much higher than in other countries where genetically modified (GM) crops are grown. Countries such as the U.S., it says, have made more limited use of the Cry1Ac gene, and have refugia and monitoring strategies to prevent the development and spread of Bt resistance.
Kranthi's model predicts a further increase in the rate of resistance development in India if insects are exposed to another Bt crop in addition to Bt cotton. If another Bt crop were to become widespread in India, the article says that the number of generations of insects exposed to Bt crops would likely increase to five or six a year. The rate of resistance development would then be accelerated, according to the model, to half the predicted time it will take with only Bt cotton.
According to the article, it is not unlikely that additional Bt crops will be introduced in India.
Suman Sahai, convener of the Delhi-based Gene Campaign, says, "Over 42% of the [Indian] projects in biotechnology research use this Bt gene . . . We are going to face a situation when a wide range of crops, from cotton to potato, rice, maize, brinjal [eggplant], tomato, cauliflower, cabbage, even tobacco, carrying the Bt gene will be growing next to each other."
Commenting on the situation in India, Ebrahimali Siddiq, board member of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), says, "Genetic uniformity is really dangerous . . . Resistance can break down any day." Kranthi's findings were published in December 2004 in the Indian Academy of Science publication Current Science.
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2.Now, Bt cabbage
The Hinbdu, Feb 12, 2005
NEW DELHI, FEB. 11. Using genetic engineering, a team of scientists from India, Canada and France has claimed to have developed a cabbage that is resistant to "diamondback moth (DBM)" ”” a pest present worldwide that has become resistant to every known pesticide. The pest resistant cabbage was produced by transferring to it a synthetic "fusion gene" of the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) that produces two proteins toxic to the pest, the scientists report in the Indian Journal of Biotechnology. Polumetla Ananda Kumar of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi, the lead author of the paper, said he is "not aware" of work by any other group to develop such a cabbage.
This is the first report on "introduction and expression of a fusion Bt cry gene encoding Cry1B and Cry1Ab" as fusion protein in a tropical cabbage, they said. According to the report, the cabbage grows in tropical and subtropical conditions and the presence of two Bt genes in the cabbage is likely to prevent evolution of resistance in the pest. ”” PTI
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3.Pawar for more budgetary help to develop GM crops
OUR ECONOMY BUREAU
February 11, 2005
NEW DELHI, FEB 10: Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar has demanded more budgetary support for developing genetically modified (GM) crops in the public sector research institutes.
Speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the launch of a national-level electronic commodity spot exchange in the Capital on Thursday, the minister said, "GM crops are necessary for ensuring food and nutrition security and increasing farmers' income. Like the IT sector, India has to exploit its potential to emerge as a leader in agricultural biotechnology. We need GM crops that can resist biotic and abiotic stresses, and also the impact of global climatic changes."
Mr Pawar asked for more budgetary allocation for different horticulture development schemes, micro-irrigation projects, fishery sector and the construction of warehouses
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Orissa releases draft biotech policy
By Our Staff Reporter
The Hindu, Feb 12, 2005
http://www.hindu.com/2005/02/12/stories/2005021201371300.htm
BHUBANESWAR, FEB. 11. The Orissa Government today released the Draft Biotechnology Policy, 2005, to speed up overall development in biotechnology in the State.
The draft policy, released by the Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik, at the inaugural session of a three-day national workshop here, aims to take up a detailed inventory of bio-resources in the State with the help of universities, research institutions, non-governmental organisations and private agencies.
The other objectives of the proposed policy are to promote conservation of bio-diversity, and develop high quality infrastructure with the required support services for manufacturing units by setting up specialised biotech parks in various parts of the State.
The policy promises special incentives to the biotech industry and related sectors and creates an enabling environment for the growth of the biotech industry, especially the simplification of procedures for getting clearances for the commercialisation of new biotech products. The thrust areas that have been identified by the State Government include medical research and application; food and nutrition security; disaster management with biotechnology intervention; and environmental biotechnology and biodiversity conservation. The national workshop on "Biotechnology Potentials for Development in Orissa," has been organised by the State Government with the cooperation of the Central Government's Department of Biotechnology and other agencies. The final policy on biotechnology will be formulated on the basis of the inputs of this conference and an investors' meet on biotechnology that will be organised here shortly.