(a) whether advanced varieties of seeds have been developed by Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) using radiation and if so, the details thereof;
(b) the number of such varieties of seeds developed using this technology;
(c) whether these seeds are potentially hazardous to health of humans and if so, the details thereof; and
(d) the precautions taken / being taken by the Government to avoid such health risks?
THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES & PENSIONS AND PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE (Dr. JITENDRA SINGH):
(a)&(b) Yes, Sir. Using radiation induced mutagenesis along with cross breeding, BARC has developed 42 notified varieties of oilseeds (15 varieties of groundnut, 3 varieties of mustard, 2 varieties of soybean, one variety of sunflower), pulses (8 varieties of mungbean, 5 varieties each of pigeonpea and urdbean and one variety of cowpea), one variety each of rice and jute, which have been released and notified for commercial cultivation across the country. Details are given at Annexure-1. Some of the desirable traits in these crops include higher yield, seed size, improved agronomic and quality traits, early maturity and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses.
(c) No, Sir. Crop varieties developed through mutation along with cross breeding are not hazardous to human beings. From the genetic changes brought by radiation based mutagenesis, only desirable changes in crop plants which are beneficial to the farmers and are suitable to different agro-climatic regions, are incorporated and carried forward. After stabilization of desirable changes, new crop lines are tested rigorously in national or state evaluation trials over the seasons and across the locations. Only those lines which have superiority over the local, zonal and national check varieties are released and notified for commercial cultivation.
(d) The new breeding lines developed using radiations (mutants) are evaluated along with the lines developed by other research centres in the trials conducted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and/or different State agriculture universities in their respective agro-climatic zones. Hence, mutants are commercialized only after systematic evaluation, their superiority over existing varieties, and approval by the recommendation committees as per the norms set by Central and State Variety Release Committees. In view of the above, there is no health risks associated with the mutant varieties.
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