Govt set to clear genetically modified mustard: Officials

India is close to approving a genetically edited variety of mustard, which offers better nutrition and disease resistance, two officials have said, as the government has signaled a shift towards deploying so-called CRISPR technologies over genetically modified (GM) crops for solutions such as higher productivity and climate resilience.

- Zia Haq

In May, agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced the commercial release of its first high-yield and climate-resilient rice varieties developed by scientists of the state-run Indian Council of Agricultural Research, or ICAR, using CRISPR-Cas9, a technology that allows precise changes in genes. Unlike genetically modified organisms (GMOs), crops tweaked with the CRISPR-Cas9 system don’t contain foreign DNA. Since GM crops have been a controversial topic in one of the world’s largest producers of farm commodities, the Indian government has given quicker regulatory clearances for crops altered through gene editing to boost resilience and productivity.