America
US uses 'Intel Inside' model to push GM crops
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By Vivian FernandesThe 'Intel Inside' model has become the template for deploying
agricultural biotechnology from American publicly-funded research
institutions and private corporations to farmers in developing
countries.
Just as the combination of Microsoft's Windows
software and Intel's assurance of ever-increasing computing power drove
the growth of the personal computer industry, genetically-modified
disease, insect and stress tolerant traits developed for philanthropy or
profit in the United States are being tailored for regional
requirements by national partners for cultivation by farmers, says Vijay
K. Vijayaraghavan, chairman of the Hyderabad-based Sathguru Management
Consultants.
Sathguru is the South Asia coordinator for
Agricultural Biotechnology Support Programme - II, a US
government-funded initiative led by Cornell University to popularise GM
crops. (ABSP II delicately calls itself an effort to enable farmers and
consumers worldwide to make informed choices about bio-engineered
products!).
In the case of insect-resistant Bt brinjal, whose
release in India for commercial cultivation was stalled five years ago
by then environment minister Jairam Ramesh, the gene, toxic to the fruit
and shoot borer, was licensed by Monsanto, the US crop science company
(2014 sales $15.85 billion) to Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company
(Mahyco).
What was not heard in the din created by those opposed
to the technology was that Mahyco had allowed Tamil Nadu Agriculture
University, Varanasi's Indian Vegetable Research Institute and the
University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, to incorporate the gene in
open pollinating varieties of brinjal, whose seed farmers could save
and use for free. Mahyco reserved the right to sell hybrid seeds.
While
India spurned the offer, the Bangladesh Agriculture Research institute
(BARI), went ahead and released the Bt varieties in October 2013 under
the same arrangement with Mahyco as in India.
Those opposing Bt
cotton, the only GM crop approved in India, cite as a reason the high
cost of hybrids which cannot be re-used (without loss of vigour). The
seed is under price control; a packet of 450 grams cannot be sold for
more than Rs 930 ($15). Farmers do not seem to mind as 95 percent of
India's cotton acreage is now planted with the insect-resistant hybrids.
They are possibly compensated by savings from reduction in pesticide
sprays and crop damage.
Bt brinjal is being grown by 108 farmers
in Bangladesh and the crop is now being harvested. Farmers have reported
good gains from savings in pesticide sprays and higher prices as the
fruits are unlikely to be damaged from inside.
Bharat Char, who leads biotechnology research at Mahyco, says savings can be as high as Rs.16,000 an acre.
Similarly,
for late blight resistance in potatoes, the gene has been provided by
the University of Wisconsin and Venganza, a private company. The potato
incorporates modified bits of the late blight's own gene, through a
technique called gene silencing, which enters the disease-causing
microorganisms when they attack potatoes, causing them to self-destruct.
Venganza
is Spanish for revenge. Local varieties incorporating the gene are
being developed by the Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla, BARI
and Icabiograd, Indonesia's institute for research in agricultural
biotechnology.
Navigating the thicket of patents can be tricky.
Vijayaraghavan explains in an article in the Journal of Intellectual
Property Rights that scientists at Cornell University had found a
naturally-occurring sugar called trehalose which helps plants cope with
and recover from extreme stress. The university had patented a method to
put the trait into rice varieties, but could not transfer it outside
the US, as an MNC had secured protection for a similar technology.
A
way out of the tangle was found by getting Greengene Biotech, a
co-developer and co-patent applicant with Cornell, in South Korea (where
the MNC did not have the patent) to make the technology available to
India, with Sathguru securing the MNC's consent. The technology was
transferred to Bangladesh by fulfilling the material transfer agreement
guidelines and licensing obligations.
Evaluation of the
transgenic seeds was done by the Directorate of Rice Research,
Hyderabad, and Delhi's ICGEB, a non-profit research organization set up
by Unido, a UN agency. The testing was undertaken by the Central Soil
Salinity Research Institute, Karnal.
The Intel Inside model has
been emulated by the Indo-Swiss Collaboration in Biotechnology to craft
transgenic chickpea which is resistant to the pod borer and cowpea
aphids. An agreement has been reached between Assam Agricultural
University, Kolkata's Bose Institute and Swiss research organizations
for the development of technologies, adherence to milestones,
acquisition of relevant new skills and the regulation of intellectual
property rights.
Based on the highest bid, the technology was
transferred to Mahyco on a non-exclusive basis for development of pest
resistant hybrids and conduct of biosafety trials.
Eight traits
in 17 crops are being evaluated for safety by 32 institutions in the
country. Field trials are allowed in only four states. The centre is coy
about allowing commercial cultivation of GM crops. Intel Inside seems
unable to overcome the opposition outside.
(30.03.2015 - Vivian
Fernandes is consulting editor of www.smartindianagriculture.in, a web
site supported by the crop biotechnology industry. The views expressed
are personal. He can be reached at [email protected])