The Hindu Business Line : Tobacco industry says `no' to GM crop

THE tobacco industry is not ready to accept genetically modified tobacco and introduction of GM crop would only harm the interests of farmers and the industry, Mr H.D Papenfus, Chief Agronomist of Standard Commercial Tobacco Services Ltd, the UK, has said.

Presenting a paper here on Friday on `Clean tobacco' at the national symposium, he said though tobacco was an extremely malleable crop, the industry was in no mood at present to buy GM varieties and they should not be commercially released. He stressed the importance of varietal purity and seed integrity. Seed produced by farmers themselves would not confirm to the minimum accepted international standards and local seed production seed production should be strictly regulated, he said.

He said it would be a mistake for India to imitate Zimbabwean or Brazilian styles of tobacco in the hope of capturing some of the markets, as there was unrest in Zimbabwe. Those varieties may not be suitable to India and they may not perform as well in Indian conditions.

Dr M.S Chary, former Director of the Central Tobacco Research Institute, Rajahmundry, sought to know from Mr Papenfus why the Americans were seeking to curb GM tobacco elsewhere in the world when Monsonto had released one such variety in the US. Dr Papenfus replied that Monsonto had only undertaken research into GM tobacco and had not commercially released it. In some pockets of America, one GM Burley variety was being grown unauthorisedly causing many problems, he added.

In response to Dr Chary's query, he clarified that he was not against research into the area in order to improve the pest resistance of the traditional varieties, but the commerical release of GM varieties was fraught with grave risks. ``We must put a tight lid and bottle up this particular genie,'' he remarked.

Answering a question on the wide range of acceptable pesticide residue levels in the crop in the international market, posing many problems to the exporters and farmers, he said it was a complex and confusing area and it would have to be standardised. ``In the absence of an internationally accepted standard, it should be the endeavour of scientists to maximise yields with the minimum of chemical pesticide,'' he said.

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