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Agricultural and food biotechnology

Biotechnology on the farm and in the fish pond: genetically modified and genome edited crops and their regulation, crop and animal genomes, breeding technologies, fish farming systems and food grown from cells. Prelims has asked how genome sequencing can be used in Indian agriculture and about biofilters in recirculating aquaculture.

Showing 1 of 4 subjects, those that changed from 1 to 15 July 2026.Show all

Genome edited crops: India's rule and the European law

Prelims and Mains

India exempts SDN-1 and SDN-2 edits, which leave no foreign DNA, from the rules for genetically modified organisms through a 2022 office memorandum, so they bypass the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee. SDN-3 inserts a gene and remains regulated.

What changed

10 Jul 2026New subject
- The European Parliament approved a two tier law on 17 June 2026. Simple edits get a light regime, but herbicide tolerant plants are kept under full assessment whatever technique made them, a check India's rule lacks.
- Unapproved herbicide tolerant Bt cotton is estimated to cover a quarter to nearly a third of India's cotton area.
Mains: Bt traits protect yield from pests and do not raise it, so new approvals alone would not restore cotton productivity.
Frontline, 10 Jul 2026: The European Parliament has voted to ease its rules on gene edited crops but has deliberately kept herbicide tolerant plants under the full genetically modified organism regime, a check that India's own framework does not have. (opens in a new tab) · The Indian Express, 2 Jul 2026: The argument that new genetically modified cotton events would restore yields is being contested (opens in a new tab)

Also filed elsewhere

Mutation breeding · on Fusion, radiation applications and nuclear governance
Mutation breeding exposes seeds to radiation to create changes within the crop's own genome, and the breeder then selects the plants worth keeping.