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Moderated conference on GMOs in the pipeline, hosted by the FAO Biotechnology Forum in 2012

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Biotech-Mod2 <[log in to unmask]>
Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:44:35 +0100
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I am Rachel Predeepa, and am currently working as Assistant Manager, Garphi Biosciences Private Limited, India. To be frank I am no way closely working with GMO products, but do have an earnest opinion on the status of GMOs in India as this is of common interest, which I would like to share.

As far as countries like India are concerned the majority of the workforce is dependent on the agricultural economy and any new technology introduced will not have wide appeal unless useful to this sector. However there are a number of controversies underpinning in implying the GMO technology for the betterment of crops for human use. As this stage is not set for discussing these controversies, let us have a closer look at where the GMO technology is moving forward.

The Government has not neglected GMO technology and its usefulness altogether. It has taken an honest initiative by laying down rules and regulatory measures to mediate the smooth commercialisation of the GMO products for the future. The website of the Indian GMO Research Information System (IGMORIS, http://igmoris.nic.in) stands evidence and provides ample information on the status and regulatory requirements for commercialisation of GMOs in India. 

As mentioned elsewhere in the on-going conference, the only commericalised GM crop is the Bt cotton, and to further the commercialisation of other GM crops like tomato, rice, brinjal, maize and wheat, I wonder whether adopting technologies similar to Golden Rice or sterilisation (similar to the suggestion of Carlos Scotto in Message 20) would work. I also wonder, if the case that India is the centre of origin for Brinjal and contamination of genome be the problem, whether sequencing the genome of brinjal and studying the implications of contamination of genome using this information at in vitro and/or at in situ trial sites at genomic level might help!?!

However, GMO has not been in toto neglected. The prospects of the use of this technology in the pharma industry are successful and flourishing. Twenty such products are in wide use with wide public appeal, and one such example is Hepatitis B vaccine, which especially helped in the reduction of cost of this vaccine following its production in India, if I'm not wrong. However, not all the twenty recombinant products are synthesized using GMOs like Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, etc.,.. Some of them are produced using animal cell lines, and is not within the scope of this discussion. If only more information could flow into the discussion on the booming GMOs (biologics) in the pharma sector in comparison to the agrisector will be great.

Rachel Predeepa
Assistant Manager,
Garphi Biosciences Pvt. Ltd., 
India
Ph.No.: 9500906549
Email: ecoagripolicy (at) gmail.com

[To contribute to this conference, send your message to [log in to unmask] For further information on this FAO Biotechnology Forum, see http://www.fao.org/biotech/biotech-forum/]

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