Context

• The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), India’s apex regulator of genetically modified plants and food products, has approved the environmental release of Dhara Mustard Hybrid-11 (DMH-11), a genetically-engineered variant of mustard.
• If approved for commercial cultivation it would be the first genetically modified food crop available to Indian farmers.

DMH-11 Hybrid Variety

• DMH-11 is a hybrid variant of mustard developed by researchers at The Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants, at the University of Delhi.
• Mustard is a self-pollinating plant and therefore a challenge for plant-breeders to cross different mustard varieties and induce desirable traits. 
• Being able to turn off this self-pollinating trait to enable such crossings and then restoring the trait, to enable seed production, is how the mustard plant’s genes are to be manipulated. 
• DMH-11 is a result of a cross between two varieties: Varuna and Early Heera-2. 
• Such a cross wouldn’t have happened naturally and was done after introducing genes from two soil bacterium called barnase and barstar.
• The result is DMH-11 (where 11 refers to the number of generations after which desirable traits manifest) that not only has better yield but is also fertile.
• DMH-11 is a transgenic crop because it uses foreign genes from a different species.

Are hybrid mustard varieties better?

• Trials conducted over three years by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) suggest that DMH-11 has 28% higher yields than its parent Varuna and was 37% better than zonal checks, or local varieties that are considered the best in different agro-climatic zones.
• DMH-11 rather than being an end in itself signals the proof of success of the barnase-barstar system that can act as a platform technology to develop newer hybrids.
•  Scientists say that having better hybrids is necessary to meet India’s rising edible-oil import bill. 
• India imports anywhere from 55-60% of its domestic edible-oil requirement.
• This is primarily due to low productivity — of about 1-1.3 tonnes/hectare — that has been stagnant for over two decades.
•  On the other hand, hybrid mustard and rapeseed are the dominant form of oil seeds in Canada, China and Europe. So, proponents say, the only way to improve India’s productivity is to have more mustard hybrids.

Why is it controversial?

•  The use of genes that are foreign to the species.
•  The preparation of mustard hybrids require the use of another gene, called the bar gene, that makes it tolerant to a herbicide called glufosinate-ammonium.
• GM mustard plants may dissuade bees from pollinating the plant and this could have knock-off environmental catastrophes.

GEAC Approval

• This isn’t the first time that the GEAC has cleared the environmental release of GM mustard. In 2017 too, the apex body had cleared it but the process got stalled after a case was lodged in the Supreme Court. 
• The government, or specifically the Environment Ministry, hasn’t officially supported GM mustard despite the GEAC being a body under it.
•  Currently the only transgenic crop grown in India is Bt-cotton. 

Related Information

About GEAC

• The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) is a statutory body constituted in 1989 under the ‘ Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. 
• It was formed as the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee and was renamed to its current name in 2010.
• It functions under the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change.
• The body regulates the use, manufacture, storage, import and export of hazardous microorganisms or genetically-engineered organisms and cells in India.
• GEAC is chaired by the Special Secretary/Additional Secretary of MoEF&CC and co-chaired by a representative from the Department of Biotechnology (DBT).

Reference:

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/agriculture/explained-the-new-hybrid-variant-of-mustard/article66088166.ece