Govt regulations on GM crops divide seed industry

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 26 

The BJP government’s move to tighten regulation on genetically modified (GM) crops has triggered an all-out war among companies controlling the multi-crore seed industry with 10 majors, including Monsanto, Bayer and Dow, today breaking away from the National Seeds Association of India (NSAI).

Indicating a divide over issues related to the capping of royalties and seed prices, representatives of the splinter group — the Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSII) — said they had come together to promote “growth of the research-based seed industry”.

They demand that the government should allow the market to determine prices of GM seeds, rather than by a regulatory mechanism, which the Centre intends to do to “break the monopoly”.  The breakaway came after the NSAI officially “welcomed and appreciated” the initiative taken by the Agriculture Ministry to bring clarity and order into the GM trait licensing and trait-value fixation. “The monopoly in Bt cotton trait licensing has led to a situation where not only the seed industry suffered, but also the farmers had complaints about high and varying seed pricing,” the NSAI said. 

“The subject of seed is of strategic importance, food security is dependent on it therefore, we cannot blame the government from trying to regulate it,” NSAI president M Prabhakar Rao said.

The NSAI today held consultations on “IPR issues related to GM traits and seeds” with various stakeholders, including farmers’ organisation Bharatiya Krishak Samaj and RSS-affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch. 

The Sangh’s initiative is believed to have pushed the government to cut royalty on BT cotton seeds and put a cap on seed prices, for which companies are making a hue and cry. “The regressive measures of price control and proposed licensing guidelines would stall the progress of the seed industry to the detriment of the larger interest of Indian agriculture,” the FSII said.

FSII president M Ramasami said the aim was to flag seed firms’ concerns before the Agriculture Ministry regarding its proposed draft notification on regulating the BT cotton seed market. “We believe that the market should determine the prices ...We are for the market-driven mechanism rather than the regulatory mechanism,” he said.

Ramasami said the FSII was driven by the fundamental value of respecting research and intellectual properties of others.  One of FSII members, Monsanto, has decided to withdrawn its application seeking environment clearance for commercial release of its next-gen GM cotton seeds in India.

Monsanto representatives call it a result of uncertainty in business and regulatory environment, the government calls it a “pressure tactic”.