China approves 81 GM seeds to boost maize & soybean as Indian biotech is blocked & crop yields languish

China’s moves since October 2023 to approve several genetically modified (GM) strains of maize and soybean have shined a spotlight on India’s own GM journey and how lengthy legal tangles and government moratoriums have condemned Indian agriculture to low yields and output levels.
After decades of shared hesitation with India over GM crops, China has broken away and joined the likes of the US, Canada, and several South American and African nations in embracing GM technology to boost crop yields.
China’s break from its past hesitation has come not only in the form of extensive research and development of GM seed varieties, and a strengthening of its regulations, but also as more direct action in the form of espionage and theft from the US of its proprietary GM intellectual property.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had in 2016 convicted Chinese nationals for stealing GM corn seeds in the state of Iowa. More recently, in 2020, FBI Director Christopher Wray spoke about how the FBI had caught non-state actors “working on behalf of the Chinese government, basically digging up seeds into the cover of night to steal them”.
The Chinese media has reported that its government, in October 2023, approved 37 GM maize varieties and 14 GM soybean varieties. More recently, in March 2024, it approved a second batch of 27 additional maize and three soybean varieties.
China, India on diverging GM paths
China’s moves come when India continues to ban the use of most high-yield GM varieties of crops. The only genetically modified crop India has so far allowed is Bt cotton, so named because the genetic modification allows the plant to produce a toxin, Bacillus thuringiensis, which can act as an in-built pesticide.
According to agricultural economists, India needs to urgently move forward with much of the rest of the world and develop other GM crops to improve yields and become competitive in world markets.
China’s GM journey began in 1993 and includes long years of research, development, strengthening of regulations, and now, even alleged espionage and theft.
Contrast this with India’s journey. At the moment, India’s foray into GM mustard remains mired in the Supreme Court, more than 20 years after hearings first began in the case.
Bt brinjal, another GM crop India had initially given approval to, was in 2010 placed under an indefinite moratorium pending appropriate tests being conducted. That process is still underway, while even India’s neighbour Bangladesh has adopted the use of Bt brinjal.
According to veteran agricultural economist Ashok Gulati, India should take inspiration from the success of Bt cotton, which was approved by the Vajpayee government in 2002, and has since seen a huge increase in crop yields.
According to Deepak Pental, a distinguished genetic scientist who developed India’s first variety of GM seeds in the form of Bt mustard, another way India is losing out is that the bulk of the scientific community has stopped working in the field of genetic engineering of seeds due to there not being any progress in the area for decades.
“The scientific community stands deskilled in these technologies, because if you don’t release anything and it becomes so cumbersome to get anything released, naturally scientists will avoid going into that area,” Pental told ThePrint. “And if you don’t learn an art or practise an art, you forget it.”
Source: Theprint