Polls show 53.7% voted against the contentious measure that was seen as a testbed case for the US as a whole

New Delhi Allowing US-based GM crop major Monsanto to intervene in the matter, the Supreme Court on Monday allowed it to raise objections to an expert committee’s recent interim report. The panel report recommended a moratorium on field trials of genetically modified crops for 10 years, which can be utilised to put a credible regulatory system in place to examine the potential impact of the technology.

A Bench, while asking the Centre and others to file their response to the report, allowed Monsanto to raise objections.

A 10-year blanket ban on field trials of genetically modified (termed Bt) crops, proposed by an expert committee set up by the Supreme Court, has set off alarm bells, especially in the cotton sector.

A senior government official said it would be like gifting a 10-year monopoly on Bt cotton to a single company, Monsanto, and clipping the wings of upcoming competitors, such as Bayer, Dow, DuPont and Syngenta, and some public sector companies.

CropLife International represents a network of regional and national associations in 91 countries, and is led by companies such as BASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont, FMC, Monsanto, Sumitomo and Syngenta

CropLife International and global Industry Coalition (GIC) have announced the publication of the first tool to aid governments, who wish to implement the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol (SP) on Liability and Redress to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.

Andhra Pradesh Agriculture Minister Kanna Lakshminarayana is a leading a delegation of farmers’ leaders, politicians and non-governmental organisations to New Delhi to bring pressure on the Union G