Two days after biotechnology research company Monsanto India admitted that its Bt (Bollgard-I) cotton had become vulnerable to pink bollworm insect pests in many districts of Gujarat, a member of Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) on Sunday said, lack of proper compliance mechanism and availability of spurious seeds had led to the situation.

“We need tighter regulations and compliance at the farm level for reaping the benefits of biotechnology,” P Ananda Kumar, member, GEAC and director, National Research Centre of Plant Bio Technology, told FE.

Terming the findings of Monsanto as ‘unfortunate’, Kumar said GEAC, the apex regulator of genetically modified crop, would thoroughly examine the issue in its next meeting.

“For several decades, we have been calling for use of tighter regulationsin seeds sector and better farm practices for increasing the agricultural yield,” Kumar added.

“During field monitoring of the 2009 cotton crop in Gujarat, Monsanto and Mahyco scientists detected unusual survival of pink bollworm to first-generation single-protein Bollgard cotton,” Monsanto had said in a statement last week.

The statement noted that the tests were carried out to gauge resistance to Cry1Ac, the Bt protein in Bollgard cotton, and pink bollworm resistance to Cry1Ac. The findings were confirmed in four districts of Gujarat – Amreli, Bhavnagar, Junagarh and Rajkot.

“Among factors that may have contributed to pink bollworm resistance to the Cry1Ac protein in Gujarat are limited refuge planting and early use of unapproved Bt cotton seed, planted prior to GEAC?s approval to Cry1Ac cotton, which may have had lower protein expression levels,” the company had said.

Bt cotton is the only GM crop approved for commercial cultivation in India since 2002 and 522 varieties, including those developed by state-owned institutions, are being used by farmers.

According to estimates, in 2009, 5.6 million small and marginal farmers in the country planted Bt cotton in 8.4 million hectare, which was equivalent to 87% of the 9.6 million hectare under cotton cultivation. In 2002, on 50,000 hectare only, farmers grew Bt cotton.

After Monsanto’s admission, the debate on the commercial cultivation of first GM food crop Bt brinjal is expected to intensified.