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INDIA – NO BAN PLANS
Govt. has no plans to ban Bt cotton: Indian Ag Minister
4 December 2006. Source: The Hindu via AgNet
New Delhi -- Minister of State for Agriculture, Kanti Lal Bhuria, was cited as saying that the Government has no plans of banning genetically modified crops including Bt Cotton, which is expected to provide major relief to the Bt Cotton farmers, who are entitled to grow the transgenic crop on a commercial basis.
In India, only genetically modified cotton has been approved by the designated authority, Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, for commerical cultivation. Interestingly, the Minister acknowledged that the Bt Cotton acreage in the country has been rising on a continuous basis, since its approval in 2002.
The Government is not contemplating any ban or formulation of any policy on GM crops even as advanced countries like US and others reportedly had some reservations, Bhuria said in the Rajya Sabha last week.
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