Sabina Devkota

Providing food, feed, fiber and energy to meet the demand of growing populations is a global challenge. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of United Nations (UN) indicated that global population would reach 9 billion from the estimated current figure of 7.8 billion by 2050. Food insecurity, empower disadvantaged groups, climate change adaptation, and environmental sustainability are the challenges faced by world. Therefore, increasing agricultural productivity, while reducing environmental footprint, is the concern of the modern farming.

Genetic engineering (GE) has the potential to address some of the major challenges of our time. Agricultural scientists developed multiple approaches to genetic modification techniques such as recombinant-DNA technology, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), embryo technology (ET), and CRISPR-Cas9 technology. Of them, GMOs are one of the most debated subjects in recent years.
A GMO, or genetically modified organism, is a plant, animal, microorganism, or other organisms whose genetic makeup has been modified in a laboratory using genetic engineering or transgenic technology. Moreover, transfer genes directly between different species, and even edit the genome itself is the GMO technique. Therefore, GMOsare produced from the combinations of plant, animal, bacterial and virus genes, which never occur in nature or the traditional crossbreeding methods.

Discovery
After the discovery of GMO technology, the world gets rid of many issues it faced such as feeding rapidly increasing population, climate change, and reduce the footprint of agriculture. GMO technology is the way of expanding the capabilities of agriculture while potentially reducing its monetary and environmental costs. One major advantage of the GMO technique is that it reduces the time it takes to develop a desired trait or variety. Moreover, GMOs increase yields, lower costs, and reduce the land and environmental footprint of agriculture.

The benefits of this technology are shared among innovators, farmers, and consumers. Developing countries and poor farmers gain substantially from GMOs. At the same time, GMO in agriculture has encountered fierce resistance by various ideological groups and powerful corporations and governments: the European Commission instituted a mandatory GMO label on food products; many of its members, including France and Germany, have banned the growing of GMOs entirely; India, while allowing for GE cotton to be grown, has refused to authorize GE rice varieties; Nepal enforced law of regulating GMOs.
We hear a wide range of opinions on GMOs. Some believe these plants and animals have great benefits to produce food and protect the environment. Others believe they hold potential risks and should be avoided. Despite the global debates, GMOs have been in use for many years in many countries. Thus, at present, the use of GMOs has generated plenty of public dialogue, questions and curiosity about the technology.

Genetic Engineering applications are usually divided into three “generations”. The first-generation traits are mostly utilized for pest control, either through resistance to pests (arthropods or fungi) or tolerance to herbicides. The second generation includes traits that improve the properties of crops (e.g., longer shelf life, enhanced nutritional value) or improves their capacity to withstand abiotic stresses (e.g., drought or flood tolerance).
Third-generation traits encode for the bio-synthesis of useful chemicals by plants. Two subgroups of these products are plant-made pharmaceuticals (PMPs), such as proteins, reagents, and antibodies; and plant-made industrial products (PMIPs) such as silk protein, elastin and collagen, bio-degradable plastic precursors, and fossil fuel alternatives.

The first generations applications of GMOs can help plants or animals grow more efficiently, which means more food produced using fewer natural resources. Also, GMOs can reduce the use of insecticides and harmful herbicides. Therefore, many scientists encourage farmers to use GMOs. However, GMOs possess tradeoffs too.

Many environment activists perceive that food produced through GMOs is less natural, because of the modification process and introduction of genetic material not native to the original organism. Some people have concerns about societal and ethical matters as the genes from the modified plants or animals could transfer to other organisms. There are also concerns that farmers’ reliance on certain types of GMOs could be a threat to biodiversity.
The implications of GMOs on the environment have become issue when a research findingwas published on May 20, 1999, Nature magazine, which indicated that pollen from genetically engineered maize plants is toxic to monarch butterflies.

Monarchs are recognized as powerful and beloved insects, symbols of resilience in urban environments, which prefer to stay in milkweed (Asclepias spp.) plant. The maize was genetically engineered to contain a toxin from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Maize plants produce huge quantities of pollen, which dusts the leaves of plants growing near maize fields. The Nature study found that close to half the monarch caterpillars that fed on milkweed leaves dusted with Bt-maize pollen died. Survived larvae of the monarch were about half the size of caterpillars compared to larvae that feed on leaves dusted with pollen from non-engineered maize.
In recent days, the issue of GMOs has created a concern of media, conservationists and social activists. Nepal is a signatory country of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which deals with the regulations related to the safety of GMO technologies and the effects of GMOs products on human health, biodiversity, and the environment. Therefore, Nepal has formulated policies to regulate the import, export and use of GMOs.

Hybrid Seeds
The National Agriculture Policy (2061) has focused on the promotion of the use of hybrid seeds at the same time regular monitoring of GMOs. Similarly, National Seed Policy (2056) asks for research and study on GMO, transgenic plants and tissue culture. The Seed Act (2045), has emphasized the movement restriction of seeds posing adverse effects on agriculture and other environments based on risk analysis study.
The National Agro Biodiversity Policy (2063) has provisioned the research studies on GMOs, and based on the research studies government can ban the import of GMO shaving potential risk on biodiversity environment. The existing policies have various provisions concerning GMOs.

However, the policies have several bottlenecks such as institutional mechanism to regulate/control GMOs, enhancing the technical and physical capacity of GMOs laboratory in the country, and partnership on a research study of GMOs.
Thus, strengthening National legislative, administrative and technical competency on research and testing of seed, plants, food, feed and animals with GMOs is an urgent need.

(Author is an undergraduate student at Institute of Agriculture & Animal Sciences, IAAS)