M2L6: Agriculture Biotechnology-II

Recall the fact, that we studied in Bt cotton. It is a biopesticide. Before we go ahead, let us differentiate between biocides, pesticides, biopesticides and biocontrol agents

Biocide	A biocide is defined in the European legislation as a chemical substance or microorganism intended to destroy, deter, render harmless, or exert a controlling effect on any harmful organism by chemical or biological means.
Pesticide	Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests, including weeds. The term pesticide includes all of the following: herbicide/weed killers (chemical substances used to control unwanted plants), insecticides nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, antimicrobial, fungicide and disinfectant.
Biopesticide	Biopesticides are certain types of pesticides derived from such natural materials as animals, plants, bacteria, and certain minerals. For example, canola oil and baking soda have pesticidal applications and are considered biopesticides
Biocontrol	Biological control or biocontrol is a method of controlling pests such as insects, mites, weeds and plant diseases using other organisms. It relies on predation, parasitism, herbivory, or other natural mechanisms, but typically also involves an active human management role.

Now recall the fact that Bt cotton seeds are sterile. They contain a terminator gene that terminates their reproductive switch. Such plants then produce seed that cannot germinate. Hence, the second-generation seeds are also referred to as suicide seeds. This technology, that renders seeds sterile upon harvest is called Genetic Use Restriction Technology or GURT and it is done to prevent farmers from saving and re-planting harvested seed. Monsanto described this technology as gene protection technology.

This technology comes in two different types

1. V-GURT (Varietal GURT)

2. T-GURT (Trait GURT)

1. V-GURT (Varietal GURT)

·         This technology is restricted at the plant variety level, hence the term V-GURT. It is designed to control plant fertility or seed development in such a way that the plant will grow and form seeds. However, these seeds will not germinate in the next generation.

·         Thus, the farmer who wants to purchase seeds containing V-GURT technology, cannot save the second-generation seeds of this crop for future planting.

·         This technology is used in Bt cotton.

2. T-GURT (Trait GURT)

·         T-GURT is designed to switch on or off a trait using activator compound. These traits include tolerance to herbicide/cold/drought/stress, pest resistance, germination, flowering, ripening, color, taste and nutritional qualities of the plant, defense mechanisms, or production of industrial or pharmaceutical compounds. Usually this chemical is sold by the same biotechnology company.

·         Farmers can save seeds for use each year. However, they do not get to use the enhanced trait in the crop unless they purchase the activator compound.

·         This technology is used in GM Mustard.

Before we go further, let us clear the basics of Mustard plant. I will start with a question to explain these concepts.

Unlike other crops – maize, bajra, rice, sunflower and cotton for instance – there are no commercial hybrids for mustard. Why? Because, the plant is naturally self-pollinating.

Mustard flowers contain both reproductive organs.

The female (pistil)

&

The male (stamen)

The gap between the pollen producing anthers and egg containing pistil is so little, that it causes a mustard variety to fertilize itself. So, if the farmer wants to hand pollinate one mustard variety with another to make hybrids (containing traits from two different sides) through cross pollination, he/she will have to experiment cross pollinating them multiple times to witness the desired gene become dominant. This takes at least a decade or so.

With rising population and pressures for improved food and nutrition security, now we do not the luxury of time to experiment and wait for the desired results to be seen. India desperately needs new hybrid varieties to improve farmers income. The ex-VC of Delhi University, Dr. Deepak Pental came out with a solution to this problem. He developed a mustard variety through genome editing as follows.

In the case of GM Mustard, that he developed, he introduced three genes, Barnase, Barstar and Bar. Barnase and Barstar are derived from a soil bacterium Bacillus amyloliquefaciens while Bar gene is produced from a Streptomyces species

The barnase gene confers male sterility to a plant in which it is inserted. In this case, only the female organ is active. This makes it possible for that plant to receive pollen from another parent.

Now the barnase gene encodes a potent ribonuclease, which when expressed, kills a cell because it chews up the whole protein manufacturing system. The action of barnase is held in check by barstar, a strong repressor gene that prevents barnase action. barstar therefore acts as fertility restorer that is lost by barnase.

Thus, the pollen grains required to fertilize this male sterile mustard plant through cross-pollination should contain this barstar gene. Recall the fact, that when barstar is not present, barnase can exert its lethal effect on the newly arrived pollen grains. When barstar is present in this pollen grains, it will inhibit the action of barnase gene upon itself.

This makes it possible to cross pollinate the two-mustard flowers and transfer the desired traits from one plant to another plant, by restricting one from self-pollinating itself.

The third gene, ‘bar’ obtained from the same bacterium synthesizes an enzyme called PAT, which confers tolerance to glufosinate in a plant. Glufosinate is a broad-spectrum herbicide. It kills almost every crop or plant or weeds. This chemical is also known as ‘Round-up’, when produced by Monsanto. It has been found that, while there is no evidence of the Barnase, Barstar and Bar proteins being toxic to either humans or animals, glyphosate is found to be an endocrine disruptor.

How Is Glyphosate Used? Introduced commercially by Monsanto in 1976, glyphosate kills weeds by blocking proteins essential to plant growth. Only the genetically engineered seeds can tolerate the chemical and do not get killed by glyphosate, Thus, farmers can apply the weed killer to entire fields without worrying about destroying their own crops, since they are genetically engineered to tolerate it and yet survive. It is now used in more than 160 countries, with more than 1.4 billion pounds applied per year.

So, what advantages do we get by using Glyphosate tolerant mustard?

India needs a new agricultural revolution as the sector is facing low productivity, susceptibility to drought and pest attacks. These problems have led to the low incomes of farmers who get into a debt trap when crops fail. The hardships they face in such scenarios manifests itself in the increasing number of suicides.

In order to feed the rising population, we need to increase the agricultural production per unit of inputs (labor, land, time, fertilizer, seed, feed or cash). Indian farmers are actually trying to run away from it. This may lead to food and nutrition security in the future.

A community of scientists (that support genome editing through biotechnology) claim, that the only way to resolve this is by financing extension services and better technologies. This includes educating farmers on the proper use of fertilizers, encouraging the replacement of seeds with the seeds of better quality etc.

Indian farmers are averse to buying certified seeds periodically, choosing instead to depend on saved seeds from the last season. The quality of seeds deteriorates after few seasons & anything from adverse weather to physical damage can hurt its ability to germinate & grow. But the lack of quality seeds in the market, poor awareness & poverty keeps farmers from replacing seeds. Timely seed replacement could increase production yields by at least 10%.

Dr. Deepak Pental is one among these group of scientists. He promises that the new transgenic variety of mustard, that he has produced will give yields of around 30% more than that of pure varieties of mustard. This will help to cut India’ edible oil import and can act as solution for this demand & supply mismatch

Issues present in GM MUSTARD

[1] The chemical used in GM mustard as a weed killer is Glyphosate. It is already banned in certain countries, as it is found to be carcinogenic and acts as an endocrine disruptor.

[2] Recall Darwins theory. “Every organism wants to survive. And in order to do that, it brings certain changes in its body, to adapt itself to changed circumstances.” In this case, glyphosate is used to kill weeds. But weeds are also living organisms. They are plants, although we refer to them as unwanted. Repeated use of glyphosate leads to the formation of Superweeds, that become hard to kill

[3] GM mustard uses herbicide tolerance. Adoption of HT crops will drastically impact rural employment in India. It is estimated that if GM mustard is adopted on even a low 25% of mustard cultivation area in the country, it will result in an approximate employment loss of 4.25 crore person-days in rural areas.

[4] Glyphosate chemical eventually builds up a layer on the soil. This leads to a change in pH value of soil that leads to loss of precious organisms vital for soil formation like earthworms, ants, termites. This creates a cascading effect on food chain.

[5] Since Glyphosate is a toxic chemical, it also kills multiple non target species that actually help in the process of pollination like moths, honeybees, butterflies etc. This may lead to a phenomenon known as Colony collapse disorder that risks food and nutrition security

[6] Herbicide tolerant Mustard doesn’t allow mixed farming as it cannot differentiate between good plants and bad plants. All the other seeds, other than those that are selectively engineered through biotechnology gets killed. Even natural seeds of Mustard are lost, if they get mixed up with genetically modified Mustard. Thus, it promotes monocropping that leads to excess loss of nutrients from the soil.

[7] Till now we don’t know the exact effect of this GM crops. So, once they are allowed in country then after 3 years, when we found effect are bad, it is impossible to withdraw back. Till that time, the farmers would have become completely dependent in GM Mustard. Since GM mustard promotes monoculture, this may lead to loss of traditional and natural variety of seeds leading to a loss of biodiversity. This will make us more vulnerable to external calamities, for e.g. increased susceptibility to diseases, that may arise in future due to climate change and global warming.

[8] GM Mustard releases pollen grains that may cross pollinate in natural, wild or indigenous species grown at an organic farming site. This may lead to seed pollution (mixing of properties of GM crops into pure species).

The claims of genetic pollution are however dubious. Someone like #PagalArnab is known to spread it without any in-depth analysis. For genetic pollution to occur, a number of pre-conditions have to be met. Even in the laboratory, such hybrids require complicated technological interventions & mustard doesn’t fulfil many of them. The wild & cultivated crop have to be easily crossable, pollinators such as birds and bees must be around, wild varieties must grow close enough to the cultivated ones, and the cultivated crops must transfer traits that are also beneficial in the wild.

[9] Other issues: Lack of an independent transparent body

The Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation is part of the Department of Biotechnology. This committee performs both the tasks of promoter and regulator of biotechnology products. Ideally the promoter and the regulator should be different, else this may lead to erosion of trust and conflict of interest among the authorities. This is confirmed by the fact that on several occasions, the promoters and developers of transgenic GM crops are also found to be present among the board of members within the regulatory committees. These regulatory/ review committees are supposed to verify & confirm the field trials & safety test of GM crops.

On multiple occasions, the SC has asked GEAC to release the transcriptome analysis report of GM Mustard which is herbicide tolerant. The biosafety review document published by GEAC on its website has not included any herbicide-related studies. It also does not include the results of field tests & where it was conducted.

Government claims that it cannot allow the reports, to be put in public domain due to IPR violation. (This also means that TRIPS agreement for Intellectual property rights violates Convention for Biological Diversity). The only thing made available in GM report was a summary report, for which someone has to seek permission, visit the ministry in person and mentally analyze all the pages – that too only for a short period of time in October 2016. Activists claims that the TRIPS agreement allows that for larger public interest, data reports can be kept in public domain. India signed the Cartagena Protocol aiming to protect biodiversity and provide biosafety in 2003, but now, is keen to give the go - ahead to GM Mustard (straight road to monoculture).

Do we need an independent biotechnology regulatory authority to deal with the use of all GMOs in agriculture, pharmaceutical and biodiversity sector? The government had come out with BRAI bill in the year 2013. Comment on the pros and cons of it.

 What does RSS claim?

Since the genes used in GM mustard are patented, commercialization of GM Mustard will open a new era of GM food crops in India which could be drought & pest resistant & higher yields. However, this will also act as a backdoor entry for various other GM crops in the regulatory pipeline – while herbicide tolerance as a trait has been recommended. One among them is HT cotton (Herbicide tolerant cotton). The effectiveness of Bt cotton is not completely proven. Farmers still have to use pesticides to kill the pests, once they start developing resistance. This leads to added investments on the side of the farmer. When the crops fail, it is the farmer that has to face the hardships when he is unable to recover these added investments.

Incorrect claims

Claim 1: India is already importing tons of canola oil from USA, Canada and Australia. All of them produce it from transgenic mustard. This technique is called as ‘Red Herring’. Here the person arguing, tries to shift the course of debate by distracting the audience from the actual subject to a topic that’s easier to justify and explain. You must have witnessed #PagalArnab using it to target select group of people. Answer: The problem is not with the genes. As already mentioned earlier, Barnase, barstar and bar are not the reason to worry. It is the glyphosate that pollutes the soil and causes problems. There are many alternatives to Glyphosate available in the market. This includes agricultural vinegar, citrus oil, cinnamon oil and clove oil.

Claim 2: Certain GMOs are found to be safe. Why not use this in GM Mustard as well? This technique is called as Cherry picking – Only choosing a few examples that support your argument, rather than looking at the full picture. Answer: Since all the GMOs are different, each of them is supposed to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Thus, the evidence of safety or risk on one GMO doesn’t substitute as evidence on another GMO. Rather the public debate should be on, should India also ban GM crops based on the fact, that many European Union member-countries have already banned it? Many European nations have actually banned the entry of GM products into their country, let alone producing them. In fact, 19 members of the European Union – including technology powerhouses like France and Germany – have taken a call to withdraw GM crops, as increasing concerns about its impact on public health are being raised by green activists. In USA, traces of glyphosate have been found in breast milk, beer, wine, eggs, oatmeal and other consumer products. Its use has been linked to infertility, immune problems and other health issues. In July 2017 California was the first state in the U.S. to issue a warning on glyphosate by adding it to the Proposition 65 Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act list of chemical substances known to cause cancer.

Claim 3: Dhara Mustard Hybrid DMH-11 gives 25-30% more yield than the best varieties such as 'Varuna' currently grown in the country. This technique is called as Anecdotal evidence. It is shown that just because something applies to one selected group of people, it must be true for most people. Answer: The yields of the new mustard should also be compared with those of mustard hybrids already available in the market for the past nine years. other natural seeds are already available that give higher yields than Varuna. Even these claims are highly exaggerated. Out of all the mustard varieties, that are genetically modified, only 85% hybrid seeds are actually found to show high yield.

Claim 4: DMH-11 will help to reduce our imports and help to save a lot of forex. Once again cherry picking without looking at the overall picture. Let us ask ourselves, why do we need to import edible oil at the first place? India’s mustard production is low because farmers do not find it to be remunerative. Consequently, the farmers have diverted their land under oil seeds to other crops. Additionally, the yield gap exists due to illiteracy of farmers & wrong farming practices that includes improper usage of fertilizer. These problems get further compounded due to lack of irrigation facilities, lack of proper diffusion of knowledge among the farmers regarding crop selection that is best suited for them based on local conditions, lack of good quality seeds at reasonable prices etc.    The new transgenic mustard is likely to be plagued by the same problems. In case of GM Mustard, the combined cost of seed and the chemicals required for its healthy functioning is very high. It also needs more water & fertilizers & pesticide. For any new hybrid to be adopted, its benefits must greatly outweigh its investment costs. When we look at the demand of farmers, in mustard growing belts viz. Punjab and Haryana, they say that they don’t need new varieties. They need better policy, better prices for their produce when they go to sell it in the markets and rationalization of factor/input costs that can help them reduce their per acre investments. If these problems are not solved, bringing in another technology might not solve the problem. The need of the hour is to encourage farmers to cultivate oilseeds by providing high price and assure markets to that crops. This will help to improve indigenous production and reduce demand for imported edible oil.

Activists claim that during the time of Rajiv Gandhi, the government had launched yellow revolution and incentivized farmers to grow oilseeds. They were protected from cheap imports of edible oil by raising import tariffs. The policy was a big success to improve our production of edible oil and reduce the loss of precious foreign exchange in importing the same. The activists claim that the present government too, can develop policies to get back to the golden age of edible oil surpluses. These claims are based on faulty analysis. During the time of Rajiv Gandhi, much of the increase in production during yellow revolution was driven by an increase in cultivated farmland. This increase in production was horizontal. Now we do not have the luxury to possess the same amount of land with the same quality. To feed the 130 crore Indian population, we need to increase the production vertically with reduced inputs (which actually never happened in Yellow revolution). This will help the farmers get a better price for their produce. Additionally, the government also gave a lot of subsidies. With increasing pressure to remove subsidies on agriculture in WTO rounds, the government of India cannot pursue market distorting policies in agriculture. In this case, methods known as crop intensification can be used. System of Mustard Intensification (SMI) is one such technique. It is already used in Madhya Pradesh. Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal and is found to give better yields than DMH-11.

Way forward:

[1] In a current environment where climatic change would have negative effects on yield of many major crops which could seriously undermine food security, GM crops are the way forward. Too much opposition to GMO will discourage any future R&D in agriculture. Hence, the government has to find balance between public safety and GM crops.

[2] There has to be strong liability laws if there are any environmental hazards or if something goes wrong in future which are not there in India at present. Government should come forward to pass the biotech regulatory authority bill 2013. This give statutory backing to this authority to work independently, so this help to bring accountability and transparency in GM crops approval.

[3] Agriculture is a state subject therefore, it is important for the Centre to take into consideration the views of State Governments as well.

[4] In Europe and China, the companies resorting to genome editing to increase the productivity and shelf life of their food products, label their products as GM crops. So here choice rest on consumers. India should also use this technique.

Summarizing everything, in this lecture, we saw how glyphosate pollutes environment and bioaccumulates in our bodies and other animals. Before you flip the page, critically analyse on the following policy that is on the table of the government of the provincial state of Maharashtra, which is a part of the federal republic of the United States of India.

The states through which Western Ghats passes, have a lot of greenery. They are also found to be reporting the maximum number of zoonotic diseases (malaria, dengue, chicken-guinea, zika, ebola, nipah etc.) The government has proposed to suppress their populations by using Wolbachia in Aedes aegypti species of mosquitoes. To what extent is this right? Is it more effective than Bti (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis) formulation containing fly ash? Critically analyze the same and post this to me on my email.