“Once the cultivation of BT crops starts in the country, there will be no seed security and hence agricultural sovereignty will be at stake. Agriculture will finally go in the hands of the corporate world,” said R N Bose, former chairman of the West Bengal State Agricultural Commission.

In 2006, the commission had banned the commercial field trial of the crop in the state, said Bose.

Organisations like the Development Research Communication and Services Centre are also against the cultivation of BT Brinjal.

“There is no evidence that GM brinjal will boost the production of the crop. Moreover, the poor in the country will not be benefited by it,” said Ardhendu Sekhar Chaterjee, founder secretary of DRCSC, a network of organisations imparting sustainable agricultural training to farmers in the state.

It was in November last year that the union minister had written to the chief minister seeking his views on the cultivation of BT Brinjal. The state government had then made its opposition clear, insisting that there are concerns in this case.

“There are clear reasons to be concerned about the commercial cultivation of Bt Brinjal. One of the worries is about ‘gene pills’ or the contamination of the land races by the engineered variety. This means that it has potential to threaten bio-diversity, destabilise important ecosystems, and limit the future agricultural possibilities in a region,” the chief minister had said in his letter.

“We want the state government to put an outright ban on genetically modified crops in the state. While the state government in West Bengal has not clearly stated its position, Kerala has banned the cultivation of the crop,” said Anuradha Talwar, president of the Paschim Banga Khet Majdur Samiti.

So far states like Kerala, MP, Orissa and Chhattisgarh have banned the field trials of BT Brinjal in their states, she said. Talwar said that there has been no discourse so far on the long-term effect on farm workers who will be handling the crop.