The Hindu : National : Centre gives nod to Mahyco

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Tuesday, Oct 31, 2006
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Centre gives nod to Mahyco

Gargi Parsai

BKU farmers burn trial field near Karnal in protest

NEW DELHI: While large-scale protests are held in the country against genetically modified (GM) foods such as GM mustard and brinjal, the Mahyco seed company was granted permission on July 11 this year by the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM) under the Department of Biotechnology to conduct multi-location limited field trials in GM paddy using Bt Cry1Ac gene.

Shoot-borer disease

The multi-locations trials are being done at 12 sites in the rice-growing parts of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh against shoot-borer disease in non-basmati paddy. A major concern is that such on-field GM trials in a region, which is the centre of origin, are fraught with risks to the bio-diversity of that crop and can contaminate the rice gene pool.

Trial field burnt

Consequently farmers of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) on Saturday burnt a trial field of GM paddy near Karnal in Haryana. The farmer, Paramjit Singh, said he had no idea whether the paddy that Mahyco wanted to try out on his field was genetically engineered and that its pollen could contaminate other non-GM paddy fields in the vicinity.

Speaking to The Hindu , Rakesh Tikait of BKU said the farmers would uproot such fields wherever they located them as such trials were being done surreptitiously without taking into account the consequences.

`Unauthorised entry'

Reacting to the action, Mahyco on Monday said it "regretted'' the action taken to uproot and burn the paddy grown in the field of Paramjit Singh.

"It is sad that some misguided people made an unauthorised entry into the trial plot and burnt the crop and did not permit us to complete data collection of the crop whose performance was being monitored,'' said M.K. Sharma, General Manager of Mahyco from Mumbai.

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