The central government has told the Supreme Court that it could not achieve the goal of reducing the number of hungry people by half without taking recourse to genetically modified (GM) crops, which could herald the second green revolution in the country. In an affidavit submitted to the apex court,it said, GM crops would not only lead to increased food security but would also reduce pressure on land use. In the last 13 years, the average availability of land per head had shrunk from 0.21 hectares to 0.10 hectares. While the population had increased by 181 million in the last decade, the land under sowing remained static at 140-143 million hectares since 1970.

The central government pronounced its position backing field trials of GM crops while junking the interim report of the court-appointed Technical Expert Committee (TEC) report, which had recommended a 10-year moratorium on GM crops field trials. The TEC was appointed by the apex court while hearing a petition by Aruna Rodrigues seeking a mechanism mandating scientific examination of all the aspects of biosafety before GM crops are released for commercial cultivation.

Making a strong plea for field trials of GM crops, the government said that a 10-year moratorium would have a cascading effect of putting all the related research fields which thus far on the upswing into a decline.It added that it would be a blow to Indian science as it would put the country 20 years back in scientific research in comparison to fast growing economies who are developing GM crops like Brazil, China etc.