近日出版的美国《科学》发表了一篇题为“ India： Negative Report on GM Crops Shakes Government's Food Agenda ”（印度：转基粮负面报告动摇政府食品计划）。 感谢刘实先生对关键句子的翻译，详细可参考： http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_502041670102efc1.html 下面是该文的全文及要点翻译 Science 17 August 2012: Vol. 337 no. 6096 p. 789 DOI: 10.1126/science.337.6096.789 News Analysis India Negative Report on GM Crops Shakes Government's Food Agenda Pallava Bagla NEW DELHI —Sounding what some regard as the death knell for the development of genetically modified food crops in India, a high-profile parliamentary panel here last week recommended that GM crop “field trials under any garb should be discontinued forthwith,” 【犹如对转基因食品作物在印度的发展敲响了丧钟，一个高知名度的议会专案组上周宣布转基因作物的任何形式的现场试验都必须被叫停。】 and that agricultural GM research should “only be done under strict containment.” In a press conference after the report's release, the panel's chair, Basudeb Acharia, was unequivocal: “India should not go in for GM food crops.” 【印度不应进入转基因食品作物领域。】 If implemented, the report's recommendations would paralyze research and erode India's food security, warns India's chief of crop research, Swapan Dutta, a rice geneticist and deputy director general here at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. “It would be better if India should end all research on GM crops if the country can't embrace it,” he says. The government must take a stand on “whether it seeks to embrace or shun biotechnology,” adds vaccine specialist Maharaj Kishan Bhan, secretary of the Department of Biotechnology here. If it comes down in favor of a ban, he says, hope for GM research in India is lost. Decisiveness won't be easy, considering that the federal government has been sending mixed signals about its commitment to agricultural GM technology. In 2002, the government gave a green light to the first commercial GM crop in India: cotton carrying the gene for the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxin, which is toxic to some insects. Today more than 1100 Bt varieties account for 93% of all cotton sown in India; production has skyrocketed from 0.02 million hectares in 2002 to 9.33 million hectares in 2011. In February, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reiterated his support of GM crops in an interview with Science (24 February, p. 907 ). “In due course of time,” he said, “we must make use of genetic engineering technologies to increase the productivity of our agriculture.” But some of Singh's own ministers haven't been toeing that line. In 2010, former environment minister Jairam Ramesh put an indefinite moratorium on commercialization of Bt brinjal, a kind of eggplant, after the ministry's scientific advisory panel had given the GM variety a thumbsup. Then in June, environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan told Science that “genetically modified foods have no place in ensuring India's food security. ” 【今年6月，环境部长Jayanthi Natarajan 告诉《科学》:“转基因食品在保障印度食品安全上没有地位。”】 The panel came down squarely on the side of GM skeptics. Chaired by Acharia, a member of parliament representing the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the 31-member panel labored for 2 years on its 492-page report. It blasted GM crops in part on economic grounds, observing that “the experience of the last decade has conclusively shown that while it has extensively benefited the industry, as far as the lot of poor farmers is concerned, even trickle down is not visible.” 【过去10年的经历表明：尽管对工业有很大好处，但就许多贫穷的农民而言，却是一丁点好处也没看到。】 GM crop researchers in India were under considerable duress well before the report came out. Since 2011, state governments have refused to issue certificates that would allow GM crop field trials to commence. As a result of this de facto ban, “virtually no new proposals come to us to fund research on GM crops,” says Bhan, whose department has funded work on 30 kinds of GM crops, from rice to rubber. “Today the pipeline has almost dried up,” he says. The Acharia panel assailed India's notable GM success, Bt cotton. It pointed out that all Bt cotton grown commercially in India is derived from technology sold by the multinational food giant Monsanto and incorporated in Indian seed varieties. “It is the fear of multinational control of food security that usually leads to a negative approach on recombinant DNA technology,” 【所有印度商业种植的Bt棉都是买跨国公司孟山都的技术得来的。而正是对跨国公司对食品安全的控制才是人对重组DNA技术有负面的抵制。】 says agriculture scientist M. S. Swaminathan, chair of the M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai. The panel notes that 70% of India's 1.2 billion people are farmers, who mostly have “no alternative but to buy Bt cotton seed” 【12亿印度人的70%是农民，他们除了买Br棉种外别无选择。】 because the yields are higher. In the last few years, thousands of heavily indebted farmers in India's cotton-growing regions have committed suicide. In one of its more contentious statements, the panel asserted that “there is a connection between Bt cotton and farmers' suicides.” 【在过去的几年里，数千受债累累的印度棉花种植区的农民发生了自杀。。。。专案组认为Bt棉和农民自杀有一定联系。】 In a statement to Science , Monsanto 【孟山都】 noted that India has reaped big benefits from Bt cotton: “India has seen a cotton revolution with farmers doubling cotton production using better seeds and technologies along with improved farming practices and other agri inputs.” The company did not address the issue of farmer suicide.【 公司对农民自杀以事未作评价。 】 Taking more direct aim at the panel, N. Seetharama, executive director of the Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises-Agricultural Group in Bangalore, said that “the partial and one-sided arguments put forth in the public domain could harm the national interest.” Ministries now must digest the report and later explain to the panel whether and how they plan to implement the report's recommendations, which carry political weight but are not mandatory. If the government doesn't make a forceful case for GM crops, Bhan says, there may be no alternative but to “stop all use of GM crop technology till it has been totally made in India.” And if Monsanto becomes “a nuisance,” he added, “it can be kicked out.”【如果孟山都成为一个厌物，它将被踢出去。】
印度政府决定投入1.4亿卢布用于发展印度植物药市场。据了解，印度此举意在提高全球植物药市场的份额。目前，全球植物药市场规模约为620亿美元。 The Union Cabinet于5月13日宣布成立印度传统草医学Ayurveda，Siddha和Unani草药的振兴委员会。主要用于从这些植物药中开发出基于现代药物研究基础的符合市场需求的标准药物。 该委员会选址办公地点Ghaziabad，未来两年将利用政府的1.4亿拨款投建及标准建立工作。委员会将首先列出Ayurveda，Siddha和Unani医药体系的标准。此前，印度已经成立了AYUSH(即Ayurveda，Siddha和Unani草药)计划委员会。该委员会主要负责者三大体系药物标准的回顾整理和印刷工作，以及配方整理，发展标准等。 印度一位高级官员表示：“全球植物药贸易市场高达620亿美元，中我国植物药贸易出口额为190亿美元，而印度则不足10亿美元。新委员会的成立意在提高印度植物药市场在全球的份额。印度传统草药中有1000多种草药配方，目前亟待建立相关标准，包括对原料的控制及原产地的确认。 该官员还表示，将确立Ayurveda，Siddha和Unani传统药物企业的生产过程标准。并且在全印度范围确定草药原料的道地性及可参考文件。 此举将会对印度植物药行业产生深渊的影响。
标签: 印度政府
