Sale of illegal HTBt cotton seeds doubles

Sale of illegal HTBt cotton seeds doubles

Part of: GS Prelims and GS III – Economy; Biotechnology 

In news  

• The illegal cultivation of herbicide tolerant (HT) Bt cotton has seen a huge jump this year, 
• Sale of illegal seed packets has more than doubled from 30 lakh last year to 75 lakh this year. 
• BT Cotton is a genetically modified crops that produces an insecticide to combat the Cotton bollworm, a common pest.  
• GM crop has a gene artificially inserted from another species to provide some desired properties like pest resistance herbicide tolerance drought resistance 
• However, concerns are raised over its negative impact on Environment human health and crop diversity  
• Currently BT Cotton is the only GM crop allowed for commercial cultivation in India but herbicide tolerant BT Cotton has not been approved by regulators. T 
• They are available in the black market along with BT brinjal and HT Soya seeds.  
• HTbt Cotton variant makes the plant resistant to the Herbicide glyphosate  
• Glyphosate has carcinogenic effect and can also result in spread of herbicide resistance to near by plants through pollination  

DO you know? 

• Regulatory Framework for approval of GM crops is covered under  the Environment protection Act 1986  
• Genetic engineering appraisal committee under Ministry of Environment, forest and climate change is Apex body that allows for commercial release of GM crops in India 
• Cartagena protocol on biosafety provides well-defined mechanism of regulation of GM crops including biosafety evaluation and environmental release