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REGULATORY AND GOVERNANCE ISSUES RELATING TO

GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS AND FOOD:

AN INDIA CASE STUDY

Anuradha R.V.

Independent Consultant, New Delhi, India

Email: anuradha.rv@gmail.com

CASE STUDY FOR THE NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PROJECT ON INTERNATIONAL GOVERNANCE OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 4

A. A Brief Background 4

B. Methodology 5

C. Structure of the Case Study 5

CHAPTER I AGRICULTURE IN INDIA 6

I.1 Food Insecurity in India: Problems of Access and Distribution 6

A. Agricultural Production 6

B. The Dismal Situation of Food Security 6

I.2 Other Factors affecting Agricultural Development 8

I.3 The relevance of GM Crops to Agriculture in India 8

A. GM Crops and Food Security 8

B. Other Potential Uses of GMOs in Agriculture 9

CHAPTER II RISKS AND BENEFITS & the ACTORS IN THE GMO POLICY DEBATE 11

II.1 Principal Arguments in the GM debate in India today 11

A. Concerns of the Skeptics and the Opponents 12

B. The Proponents’ View 14

II.2 Government & the Bureaucracy 15

II.3 Public Sector Institutions 16

II.4 Private Sector Actors 17

II.5 National NGOs 18

II.6 International NGOs & Governmental Actors 19

II.7 Farmers’ Movements/ NGOs 19

II.8 Media 20

CHAPTER III DEVELOPMENT OF GM CROPS IN INDIA 21

III.1 Agronomic Evaluation of GM Cotton and Mustard: Some Controversies 21

III.2 Lacunae in the Monitoring Mechanism: Illegal plantation of GM Cotton-seeds 24

CHAPTER IV FOOD PRODUCTS CONTAINING GM INGREDIENTS 26

CHAPTER V REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR GMOs 28

V.1 The Legal Framework in India 28

V.2 Division of Jurisdiction under the Rules 28

V.3 GMO Activities & Their Regulation 29

V.4 Principles of Risk Assessment for Transgenic Crops 32

A. General Approaches to Risk Assessment 32

B. Agronomic Evaluation of GM Plants 33

V.5...