Following lack of consensus on technology related to genetically modified (GM) crops, the Karnataka government is not only trying to aggressively push for research into non-GM biotechnology, but has also formed a consortium of reputed public institutions to take up this research.
Announcing this at Bangalore India Bio 2016 here, Minister of State for Agriculture Krishna Byre Gowda said the consortium comprised all the agricultural universities, National Centre for Biological Sciences, and the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics.
The consortium would take up research through non-GM biotechnology (marker-assisted breeding) on developing drought-resistant and higher-yielding varieties in the crops of groundnut, pigeon pea, ragi, and jowar. The research would be completely funded by the State government, he said.
Scientific debate on BT
The Minister made it clear that the government would welcome a scientific debate on GM technology too so that an appropriate policy decision could be made on the issue. He regretted that presently no debate based on scientific evidence and rationale was being held.
“In the name of debate, a lot of shouting goes on where attempts are made to beat the voice of reason and force the prejudiced and pre-conceived notions,” he observed. He called upon all the stakeholders, including scientists, farmers and biotechnology firms to agree upon the method of scientific debate.
