Biotech Updates

Biotech Jute Set for GEAC Approval in India

April 16, 2014

India seems to have another commercialized biotech crop soon, and it would not be Bt brinjal but genetically modified jute developed by scientists in University of Calcutta. According to Swapan K. Datta, Deputy Director General of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the documentation of GM jute is ready to be sent for commercial approval to Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) next month. He mentioned this on the sidelines of the roundtable discussion on Addressing Challenges of Food Security organized by Confederation of Indian Industry on 7 April 2014.

Once approved, GM jute would be the second commercialized non-food crop in India, next to Bt cotton, which covers 95 percent of land in India devoted to cotton.

Read more at http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2014/04/08/india-set-to-approve-gm-jute-second-biotech-crop-after-cotton/#.U0ykJ_mSy-0.