HTBt cotton gets positive report, one step away from commercial cultivation

NEW DELHI: An expert committee, appointed by central biotech regulator to review biosafety data of transgenic cotton, has submitted a favourable report on genetically modified HTBt cotton, paving way for Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) to take a final call on its commercial cultivation.

Though transgenic Bt cotton is being cultivated in the country after getting approved in 2002, the herbicide-tolerant Bt (HTBt) cotton could not get the mandatory GEAC nod despite long-pending demand of cotton farmers. As a result, its illegal variant is reportedly being used without quality check in many cotton-producing states.

Sources said the expert committee's report has given an all clear to HTBt cotton but the final decision would be taken by govt after getting regulator GEAC's nod.

The demand for legal use of HTBt is expected to be raised again on Friday when Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan visits Coimbatore for a crop-specific meeting on cotton.

Since the ministry has invited suggestions from farmers ahead of the meeting amid reports of declining Bt cotton productivity in the country due to a newly emerging disease, tobacco streak virus (TSV), demand for allowing another transgenic variety - HTBt - for commercial cultivation at the earliest is expected to be the key takeaway.