NEWS Bulletin from Indian Society For Sustainable Agriculture And Rural Development
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1. New GMO Authority - Monsanto suggests provision for maintaining data confidentiality
2. Bangladesh urged to contain Bird Flu
3. Experts call for bio-security as pests, diseases enter India
4. Revised WTO Services Draft - Developing countries want market access for skilled manpower
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Monsanto suggests provision for maintaining data confidentiality
ASHOK B SHARMA
Posted online: Monday , June 09, 2008 at 2245 hrs IST
New Delhi, Jun 8 The seed multinational, Monsanto has suggested inclusion of the provision for maintaining data confidentiality in the draft National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority Bill-2008.
Monsanto India's manager of regulatory affairs, Devraj Arya said : "It is a good thing to have a single window clearance of genetically modified (GM) products, but the new law should ensure data confidentiality. This is absolutely necessary in the IPR regime and we cannot afford to stand the risk of making such sensitive data public."
The department of biotechnology (DBT) has drafted a Bill, which would allow setting up of a autonomous National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority (NBRA) as a single window clearance for GM products.
Recently, Greenpeace India had asked Mahyco, which has developed Bt brinjal with technology sourced from Monsanto, to reveal some biosafety data. The Central Information Commission had ordered Mahyco to disclose the data. which was refused by Mahyco under the Right to Information Act and went with an appeal before the Delhi High Court.
The proposed Bill, if passed by the Parliament, would take away the provisions of regulation of GM products from some existing laws like the rules for manufacture, use, import, export and storage of hazardous micro-organisms, genetically engineered organisms or cells, 1989 issued under Environment (Protection) Act 1986, Food Safety and Standards Act, Drugs and Cosmetic Act, Drugs and Cosmetic (Amendment) Bill-2007, Seed Bill-2004, draft Plant Quarantine Bill, National Biological Diversity Act and Plant Varieties Protection and Farmers' Rights Act.
In a consultation session on the draft Bill convened on Friday, the member of Parliament, Sharad Joshi criticised setting up of the NBRA. He said : "The government sets up an authority only to rehabilitate retired government officials as its chairman and members."
Noted activist, Vandana Shiva of Navdanya criticised the move to place NBRA under the promoter agency, DBT and said the position of the existing regulator, GEAC under the environment ministry was better.
Though the draft Bill has proposed an inter-ministerial advisory body, its decisions are not binding for NBRA. The Union government can intervene only on policy matters. NBRA would also usurp the powers of the state governments by setting up its own state bodies.
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Bangladesh urged to contain Bird Flu
ASHOK B SHARMA
Posted online: Monday , June 09, 2008 at 1859 hrs IST
New Delhi, June 9: India, supported by Nepal and Bhutan, has urged Bangladesh to contain the spread of bird flu.
India, which is recently affected by the spread of bird flu in the areas bordering Bangladesh, has alleged that the latter had not informed about the outbreak in that country for the neighbours to take timely action. Bangladesh has, however, refuted this allegation.
The outbreak of bird flu which was confirmed in the bordering areas of West Bengal in January 15, 2008 rapidly spread to 13 districts of the state namely Birbhum, Dakshin Dinajpur, Nadia, North 24-Parganas, Murshidabad, Burdwan , Cooch Behar , Malda, Uttar Dinajpur, Howrah , Bankura, Hoogly and Purulia. Bird flu did not reach Kolkata, thiugh it reached the surrounding districts like North 24-Parganas, Burdwan, Howrah and Hooghly.
Not only this the bird flu reached Kurseong Block of Darjeeling district which was confirmed on May 5, 2008 and the presence of bird flu was also confirmed in Bijanbari Block of the same district on May 16. Darjeeling district is close to Nepal and Bhutan which are apprehensive that the virus may jump to their areas.
Bird flu also spread to Tripura, which borders Bangladesh.
The veterinary official of the South Asian countries began a two-day deliberation in Delhi on Monday to sought out the contentious issue.
The animal husbandary secretary of the host country, Pradeep Kumar offered to share with SAARC nations, India's laboratories and expertise in prevention and control of diseases like bird flu.
He said that all SAARC nations had similar livestock systems and economic and social realities and suffer from inadequacies of veterinary infrastructure and shortage of technical manpower. "It is, therefore, imperative that they share veterinary information and know-how with neighboring countries, especially in dealing with trans-boundary diseases," he said.
He called upon the delegates to evolve an action plan to tackle trans-boundary animal diseases. "Sharing of information immediately on onset of a major disease in a country is of paramount importance in checking spread of such a disease. There is scope for coordination among SAARC nations in all areas of veterinary science ranging from capacity building, diagnosis and prophylaxis, to edidemiology", he said.
This is the third year in succession, India has come under the influence of bird flu. Earlier the incidence of bird flu on poultry occurred in early 2006, in western parts of the country, and in July 2007 in Manipur, in the North Eastern part. In 2006, the poultry industry suffered an estimated loss of Rs 30,000 million, while in 2007 it was Rs 6,700 million....
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From The Fields Page - in The Indian Express
Experts call for bio-security as pests, diseases enter India
ASHOK B SHARMA
Posted online: Friday, June 06, 2008 at 2313 hrs
New Delhi, June 5: There is a shortage of food across the world and experts are trying to come up with ways in which the shortfall in supplies can be made up. Amid this, India itself confronts another dimension to food security: entry of alien pests and diseases that could affect food production.
The danger is so great that experts have already suggested to the Centre that an effective mechanism should be put in place regarding pests on the lines of the bio-terrorism law in the US. An inter-ministerial body on bio-security, they advise, should be formed with representatives from the Union ministries of agriculture, defence, health, environment and forests and commerce.
Their concern is not unfounded. The National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) has identified a number of exotic pests and diseases which have entered the country. According to reports, NBPGR has found incidence of pests not known to occur in India. These include Peronospora manshuria on soyabeans from US, tomato black ring virus on French beans from Columbia, Anthonomus grandis on cotton from the US.
The NBPGR findings have sounded a note of caution to the Government about the need for developing an appropriate mechanism to prevent the entry of dangerous pests and diseases in the interest of food security. "We have been suggesting to the Government that it should take stringent measures to prevent the entry of exotic pests or diseases that may endanger our food security," said a senior scientist at the NBPGR plant quarantine division.
The Dehradun-based Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) has also identified about 75 forest invasive species (FIS) in different parts of the country, which are a threat to the natural forest cover. Besides, there are 36 other FIS which are localised in limited areas. A special FIS cell has been set up in ICFRE under the chairmanship Director General Jagdish Kishwan.
"We are studying the behaviour of FIS and finding out ways to eradicate them from the forest areas and have also undertaken research on utilisation of FIS," said Kishwan. The ICFRE's biodiversity and climate change (BCC) division has prepared a country report on "Stocktaking of National Activities on FIS", which has been submitted by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests to Asia Pacific Forest Invasive Species Network (APFISN).
In its studies, the Hyderabad-based Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA) found bio-fuel crops like Jatropha acting as a pest bank for Semilooper (Archaea janata), red hairy caterpillar (Amsacta albistriga), leaf webber (Pempelia morosalis), stem girdler, grass hoppers, defoliaters, leaf and inflorescence webber (Pempelia morosalis), spotted bugs (Scutellera nobilis/Chrysocoris purpureus), scale insects (Megapulvinaria maxima), leaf miner, leaf blight and leaf galls (Eriophyes cherian).
NBPGR has identified race or bio-type or strains of pests which are not known to occur in India in some imported consignments. These are Helminthosporium maydis/race T on sorghum from US, pea seed borne mosaic virus on broad bean and Burkholderia solanacearum biovar 2 on groundnut from Australia.
NBPGR has been given the responsibility of conducting quarantine checks on imported plants and plant materials used in public research institutes.
Interestingly, the NBPGR has listed the years of entry of exotic pests. The sunflower downy mildew came to India in 1984, peanut stripe virus in 1987, American serpentine leaf miner in 1991, spiralling white in 1993, vegetable/pea leaf miner in 1994, banana bract streak virus and coconut mite in 1995 and Bemisia tabaci biotype B in 1999.
The scientific body has already noted the presence of some exotic pests on some crops, like blight on chickpea which possibly came from West Asia, B.tabaci biotype K on cotton, PSTV on peanut, BBTV on banana which possibly came from Sri Lanka, San Jose Scale on apple which came from US and Golden nematode on potato which came from UK. It also identified pests like Lantana camara coming from central America and Phalarius minor from Mexico. The presence of other exotic pests identified are fluted scale, codling moth, potato cyst nematode, coffee berry borer, potato wart, banana mosaic virus and apple scab.
"We have been suggesting to the government from time to time for the need to take stringent measures to prevent the entry of any exotic pest or disease which may endanger our food security. We can also conduct agarose gel electrophoresis of PCR to detect terminator technology in imported transgenic plants," said a senior scientist in the NBPGR plant quarantine division.
According to ICFRF out of the identified 75 FIS, 61 are species of plants, including 12 species of fungi and 14 are species of insects. These 75 FIS are found in different forest regions of the country. There are also 36 FIS found localized in some areas. ICFRF also concluded that out of these identified FIS, 28 species are native to India but have but have taken invasive proportions in other bio-geographical regions of the country.
Some of the identified FIS are Acacia mearnsii or De Wild., Ageratum conyzoides or (L.) Sieber, Ageratum houstonianum or P.Mill, Chromolaena odorata or (L.) King and Robinson Cytisus scoparius L, Eichhornia crassipes or (Mart.) Solms, Eupatorium adenophorum or Spreng, Ipomaea carnea or Jacq, Lantana camara L, Mikania micrantha or (L.) Kunth, Mimosa invisa or Mart, Parthenium hysterophorus L., Salvinia molesta or DS Mitch, Ulex europaeus L, Xanthium strumarium L, Ectropis deodarae or Prout, Lymantria obfuscate or Walker, Pityogenus scitus or Blanford, Polygraphus longifolia or Stebbing, Fusarium monoliforme or Sheldon.
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Developing countries want market access for skilled manpower
ASHOK B SHARMA
Posted online: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 at 2129 hrs IST
Just like the previous revised texts on agriculture and industrial goods, the new WTO draft on service has disappointed the developing countries. The services draft has no concrete proposals for effecting market access in sectors and modes of export interests to developing countries, particularly, Mode-1 and Mode-4.
Countries like India that have skilled manpower like medical professionals, engineers, architects and IT professionals are aggressive in liberalisation of the movement of natural persons under Mode-4 of the agreement. The Annex C of the Hong Kong Declaration had listed out the objectives for future negotiations in services. But unfortunately, the revised text on services negotiations released on May 26, 2008 has not been able to define guidelines or set the timeframe for implementation of these objectives.
If globalisation is to be a reality easy movement of people across borders is necessary otherwise it would merely mean opening up of Markets for goods and investment. But the developed world it appears is more keen to seek more market access for farm and industrial goods in the Third World while at the same time keeping their protected regime intact.
Mode-1 of the agreement deals with outsourcing like services supplied through Internet, telecommunications and other media. The developing countries like India, which have manpower expertise are aggressive on the issue of Mode-1.
Mode-4 and Mode-1 have recognised the importance of labour or human capital in the process of development. The developed world is apprehensive that easy movement of professionals from the Third World countries might amount to denying job opportunities to their own people. The US regulates such movements through issuance of H1B visas on quota basis.
Through Mode-2 a consumer gets services provided to him when he travels to the other country while Mode-3 deals with services supplied by commercial presence of the provider in the other country. It is necessary that the member countries when they meet for future negotiation should demand formulation of clear guidelines for implementation of the objectives of the Hong Kong declaration in respect of these four modes. They should also set the timeframe for implementation, if the services negotiations are to proceed with "the same level of ambition and political will as reflected in the agriculture and NAMA modalities".
One thing should be made clear in the interests of the developing world that negotiations in agriculture, NAMA and services should proceed separately and not result in a trade off.
The services text has urged member countries to finalise the text for domestic regulation for adoption—a sense of exercising commitment. However the draft has not prescribed the timeframe for submission of revised offers and the schedule of commitments by countries, which is open for negotiations.
The draft has mentioned about liberalising energy-related services, environmental services and financial services. Earlier, before the Bali conference on climate change the EU and the US had jointly proposed liberalisation of trade in a number of green goods and services. Many developing countries had reacted to this proposal as the industries in these countries are already developing environment friendly technologies, which may face unequal competition on opening up. Similar may be the case with opening up of financial services.
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