{"id":212844,"date":"2022-11-03T18:12:14","date_gmt":"2022-11-03T12:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=212844"},"modified":"2022-11-03T18:12:14","modified_gmt":"2022-11-03T12:42:14","slug":"seeds-of-hope-on-gm-crops-and-scientific-consent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/seeds-of-hope-on-gm-crops-and-scientific-consent\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeds of hope: On GM crops and scientific consent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on the following articles \u201cSeeds of hope: On GM crops and scientific consent<\/strong>\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>published in\u00a0The Hindu <\/b>on\u00a03rd<\/sup>\u00a0November 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cScience can help India regain traditional cooking mediums<\/strong>\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>published in\u00a0Livemint <\/b>on\u00a03rd<\/sup>\u00a0November 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus<\/strong>: GS 3 \u2013 Major crops-cropping patterns in various parts of the country<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>: About the benefits and concerns associated with DMH-11.<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) last week cleared the DMH-11 or Dhara Mustard Hybrid-11 for environmental release. The seed can now be grown in fields for producing more of its kind and is a precursor to it being approved for commercial release.<\/p>\n

About India’s oil consumption pattern<\/h5>\n

Coconut oil is popular in south India, while the western regions like to deep fry in groundnut oil. Mustard oil is used more in the east and north. But for almost 25 years, local oilseed production has fallen short of demand.<\/p>\n

None of the traditional, cold-pressed, filtered oils have managed to hold their ground against imported palm, soy and sunflower oil. Almost 70% of demand is now met with imports. India became the world\u2019s largest importer of soybean and sunflower oils.<\/p>\n

Due to marketing, traditional favourites like mustard, coconut, groundnut and sesame oil have reduced in their share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Must read: Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee approves commercial cultivation of genetically modified mustard yet again<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
What are the benefits of DMH-11?<\/h5>\n

Aid in self-sufficiency of edible oil<\/strong>: Self-sufficiency in food has to be a legitimate public-policy concern. At present, Indian kitchens spend $19 billion annually on Indonesian palm, Ukrainian sunflower and Argentinian soybean oil.<\/p>\n

Improve health<\/strong>: The most price-conscious segment of the oil market was cornered by palm oil. Getting rid of the 8 million tonnes of imported palm oil could help India lower its ischemic heart disease mortality rate associated with it.<\/p>\n

What are the other GM Crops approved in India and rolled back?<\/h5>\n

In 2009, GEAC cleared Bt Brinjal, a transgenic food crop. But the decision has been overruled by the government due to protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: Gene-altered food crops: Enhancing mustard yields<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
What are the concerns associated with the DMH-11?<\/h5>\n

DMH-11 alone may not be the panacea for India\u2019s edible oil crisis. This is because,<\/p>\n

1)<\/strong> The barnase-barstar system, used in DMH-11, is promising but already outdated given that cutting-edge technology such as CRISPR is in popularity, 2)<\/strong> The DMH-11 represents a platform technology that requires seed companies to invest and develop their own hybrids. But, there is uncertainty around regulatory policy regarding seed development in India, 3)<\/strong> Instead of making India\u2019s oilseed economy self-reliant, GMO mustard would render farmers \u201cseriously dependent\u201d on a multinational giants like Bayer AG, which holds the ultimate patent on the technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more:\u00a0GM Crops in India: Issues and challenges \u2013 Explained, pointwise<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Overall, India’s imbalance of three decades in oil market won\u2019t be fixed in a day. But science can help put traditional oils back on Indian kitchen shelves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the following articles \u201cSeeds of hope: On GM crops and scientific consent\u201d\u00a0published in\u00a0The Hindu on\u00a03rd\u00a0November 2022. \u201cScience can help India regain traditional cooking mediums\u201d\u00a0published in\u00a0Livemint on\u00a03rd\u00a0November 2022. Syllabus: GS 3 \u2013 Major crops-cropping patterns in various parts of the country Relevance: About the benefits and concerns associated with DMH-11.… Continue reading Seeds of hope: On GM crops and scientific consent<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[10501,10498],"class_list":["post-212844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-live-mint","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212844\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}