Transgenic Crops in India- Country Status

Agriculture is one of the most important sectors of the developing countries. in indiathe green, blue, white and yellow revolutions are the example of remarkableaccomplishments and gave en01l110us confidence to the agricultural scientists andfarmers and enabled the country to attain basic food self sufficiency. the year 1996 canbe considered as a landmark in agricultural biotechnology in general and crop protectionin particular as four transgenic crops comprising three insect - resistant crops (bt-com,bt-cotton and bt-potato) and a herbicide tolerant soybean, developed by monsanto,received regulatory approvals in the usa and these were commercially grown on alarge scale for the first time. the year 2009 marked the beginning of the 14thconsecutive year of large scale commercial cultivation of transgenic crops in multiplecountries. in 1996, the area planted with transgenic crops was about 1.7 millionhectares. in a span of about 13 years, the area increased 74-fold, an unprecedentedadoption record for any new technology in agriculture! the number of countriesgrowing transgenic crops which was only 6 in 1996, has reached 25 (10 industrial and15 developing countries including india) in 2008. the usa is the leading country in thecommercial cultivation of transgenic crops followed by argentina, brazil, india,canada, china, paraguay and south africa. in india, research on transgenic plant hasbeen going on in several govt. and private laboratories, since 1995. india made its longawaitedentry into commercial agricultural biotechnology in march 2002 with theregulatory approval of three bt-cotton hybrids incorporated with the bt gene cry lac,developed by mahyco-monsanto, for commercial cultivation. the benefits derived frombt-cotton included effective control of bollworms resulting in an average yield increaseby 13%, reduction in chemical sprays by 39% and net profit to farmers of over rs.10,000/hectare as compared to non-bt counter parts. the cotton production has almostdoubled and consequently india which used to record one of the lowest cotton yields inthe world is now an exporter. in india, bt-cotton contributed us$840 million or more tonational farm economy, resulting in social and economic benefits and also intangibleenvironmental benefits.