Union Govt implementing GEF on Biosafety

Coimbatore, Apr 16 (UNI) Union Ministry of Environment and Forest Joint Secretary G Balachandran today said the government would implement a 'GEF' - World Bank Capacity Building Project on Biosafety.

Speaking during the inaugural function of a two day 'Media Workshop on Agricultural Biotechnology' at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) here, he said this project would carry out a training workshop for all stakeholders and was an incremental factor for India's national capacity in order to implement the Cartagena Protocol on biosafety.

He said capacity building meant strengthening and development of both institutional and infrastructural capacities so as to ensure that countries, particularly developing countries, were able to cope with new developments and applications of biotechnology and achieve safety in biotechnology.

Genetic engineering or transgenic technology was similar to conventional breeding in terms of generating more useful and productive varieties containing new combination of genes, but it would expand the possibilities by enabling introduction of useful genes not only from within the species or closely related species, but also from a wide range of other organisms.

Mr Balachandran said research in biotechnology had shown innumerable potential and possibilities in areas of biodiversity conservation, agriculture, food and medical care. Development in agricultural biotechnology was ushering the second green revolution, he added.

Mr Balachandran said biotechnology products employed technological intervention at the molecular level, hence it was necessary that these products should undergo a rigorous biosafety and risk assessment. Biosafety would mean minimizing risks to environment and human health deriving the process of handling and transfer of Living Modified Organisms (LMOs) developed through modern biotechnology.

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, which is the international legal agreement, under UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was the only international law that deals specifically with the issues of genetic engineering and LMOs.

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