Transgenic seeds with increased yields ensures food security and eliminate the ill-effects of indiscriminate pesticide use, estimated by agencies like United Nations Development Programme. Use of insect-resistant vegetables would provide significant profit to farmers, intangible health benefits to people and a cleaner environment. Findings of a study proved that, by using transgenic tomato seeds, the farmer may spend Rs.2,800 per hectare, compared with Rs.1,200 while using normal seeds In the process, however, the outgo on pesticide declines sharply to Rs.1,350 per hectare, instead of Rs. 4,500, while the loss on account of pests reduces dramatically to Rs.3,300, instead of Rs.13,200 per hectare. Little wonder that when Novartis, a biotechnology and pharmaceutical research company, came up with an improved hybrid seed for tomatoes in ’96 – called Avinash, which was not genetically modified – it was a runaway success, even though it cost the farmer Rs.75,000 a kg, instead of Rs.5,000 a kg for normal seeds. The farmers’ keen interest is also evident since the area under transgenic crops has increased over 15-fold, from merely 1.7m hectares in ’96, to 27.8m hectares in ’98. Leading the pack is the US, where, in a matter of five years, genetically modified seeds account for 50 per cent of the area under crops such as cotton, soyabean and corn. |
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