India should embrace GM foods, says American scientist

NEW DELHI: As India grapples with whether to introduce the first genetically modified food crop in the form of genetically modified mustard into the farmer's fields or not, a top American genetic engineer and an advisor to the Indian government weighs in on India's capabilities as an emerging biotech giant.

Inder Verma, who works at the famous Salk Institute for Biological Sciences in California and is a pioneer in gene therapy and cancer research, believes GM mustard is good for India as it may reduce the edible oil import bill and is also excited by the fact that an Indian company has developed a vaccine against the Zika virus.

Verma is currently the editor of the noted American science journal "The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( PNAS)."

Here are a few excerpts from the interview:

India is grappling with whether to introduce genetically modified mustard or not, there is a raging debate, a petition is pending in the Supreme Court, do you think India should introduce GM mustard in the farmer's fields?
I believe that GM foods are very important component as the world becomes larger and more people are born and we need an improved quality of food. I'm overall a great supporter of the GM foods because I think they are an essential need if you want to feed the world.

So should India embrace GM foods?
In my opinion, India should embrace genetic engineering, because the land is limited, water is limited and fertilisers are limited, so for feeding so many people there is only one way and that is through genetically modified plants. GM mustard is such a plant because it uses less water and yields more, so definitely it is very important for India.