Now here's a funny thing. The following article covers the comments of a biotech specialist from the US Dept of State who says that when it comes to GM crops, "India has lagged behind the world", and particularly other developing nations.

Yet for the past 3 years the US-based pro-GM lobby group, ISAAA, has been proclaiming "India a key GM crop cultivator" - to quote a headline in the Times of India back in January 2005. The article went on to proclaim, "India has made it to the list of top ten transgenic crop-growing nations." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3639

A year earlier ISAAA had designated India as a "biotech mega-country", saying it had recorded the highest percentage increase in area under transgenic crops in the world.
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=79754

And this January ISAAA was at it again with India's Financial Express reporting: "India tops in GM acreage growth" http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=114336

The US department of state's Madelyn Spirnak also claims "the resistance of Indian farmers in adopting such crops was caused by lack of communication between developers and users of crops".

Given the extraordinary level of hype for GM crops in India, which has included Monsanto using everything from Bollywood stars to dancing girls, a "lack of communication" seems an odd way to describe the highly aggressive and deceptive marketing campaign that has been going on.

Incidentally, Spirnak also implies Malaysia is a leader with China in the developing world when it comes to the level of GM crop cultivation. If so, Malaysia seems to have kept remarkably quiet about it.
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India, USA farm pact to help research, crop trials
Our Bureau / Kolkata
Business Standard, February 01, 2006
http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?storyflag=y&leftnm=lmnu2&leftindx=2&lselect=1&chklogin=N&autono=213564

A knowledge initiative for agriculture has been signed between the ministries of agriculture of India and the United States of America, said Madelyn E Spirnak, senior advisor for agricultural biotechnology, US department of state at an interactive session at the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Under the Initiative, the US agency for international development and Indian institutes will undertake research and develop transgenetic crop varieties.

Spirnak said work was underway to develop a pest resistant brinjal and virus resistant groundnut, both of which will come for approval by 2007.

Efforts were on to develop drought-resistant rice and fungus resistant potato, both of which would benefit Indian farmers, felt Spirnak.

Despite the advances made by other countries in adopting transgenetic crops, India has approved only plantation of cotton.

Spirnak said India had a very stringent and scientific process of approving crops and was making the process more streamlined and faster.

India has lagged behind the world, which saw 11 per cent growth in transgenic crops planted between 2004 and 2005.

Around 90 per cent of the 8.5 million farmers planting transgenic crops were from developing nations like China and Malaysia.

Spirnak felt the resistance of Indian farmers in adopting such crops was caused by lack of communication between developers and users of crops.

She said the government needed to approach farmers to educate them about the benefits of transgenic crops and allay their fears and suspicions about them.

For consumers, websites including unified government websites were good places to gather information about crops that have been approved.

Spirnak met officials of the department of biotechnology, the ministry of health and the agriculture ministry in New Delhi to discuss the poor acceptance of transgenic crops in India and policies to boost its promotion.

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