Demand for Import of Genetically Modified Soy Seeds

Demand for Import of Genetically Modified Soy Seeds

Part of: GS Prelims and GS -III – Sci and tech

In news The poultry industry is demanding a permit for the import of crushed genetically modified (GM) soy seeds for captive consumption of farmers from the Central government.

About GM Crops

• A GM or transgenic crop is a plant that has a novel combination of genetic material obtained through the use of modern biotechnology.
  • For example, a GM crop can contain a gene(s) that has been artificially inserted instead of the plant acquiring it through pollination.
• Conventional plant breeding involves crossing of species of the same genus to provide the offspring with the desired traits of both parents.
• Bt cotton is the only GM crop that is allowed in India. It has alien genes from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) that allows the crop to develop a protein toxic to the common pest pink bollworm.
  • Herbicide Tolerant Bt (Ht Bt) cotton, on the other hand is derived with the insertion of an additional gene, from another soil bacterium, which allows the plant to resist the common herbicide glyphosate.
• In Bt brinjal, a gene allows the plant to resist attacks of fruit and shoot borers.
• In DMH-11 mustard, genetic modification allows cross-pollination in a crop that self-pollinates in nature.

What is the Status of GM Soyseeds in India?

• India allows the import of GM soybean and canola oil.
• Import of GM soya bean seeds has not been approved in India.
  • The main fear is that import of GM soya bean will affect the Indian soya bean industry by contaminating non-GM varieties.

What are the Reasons for the Demand?

• The outbreak of Covid-19 has created a massive crisis which led to an initial depletion of demand in chicken products owing to false news about the linkage between the virus and poultry products.
• This created an unwarranted financial crisis and led to the erosion of working capital (used for day-to-day operations).
• Since the last several months, high speculation activities in soya contracts on National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX) has been disturbing the sector.
  • The NCDEX is an online commodities exchange dealing primarily in agricultural commodities in India.
• The rise in the soybean process had led to the skyrocketing of prices of eggs and chicken products in the retail market.
  • The import for the particular time frame will stabilise the raw material market.

News Source: TH