In its wisdom, the US Patent Office in September 1997 judged the result, named basmati 867, sufficiently novel to grant it patent #5,663,484, entitled ”Basmati Rice Lines and Grains”, giving RiceTec exclusive rights to any basmati hybrid grown anywhere in the western hemisphere. Besides the highly questionable ”novelty” of the invention (cross-breeding has been practised for centuries, including by Punjabi farmers, who produced a variety of basmati rice), what is striking is the inequity and asymmetry of the approach.

By including basmati name into the patent definition, RiceTec could claim wide-ranging rights over a traditional name, for which it did not acknowledge the origin or the originality, let alone the copyright. The practical impact of RiceTec’s patent would be to jeopardise the prospects of Indian basmati rice suppliers seeking to export to the US and other western countries.

Forty-nine. That’s the total number of transgenic cotton hybrids cleared for commercial cultivation in a single day by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC). This follows the Supreme Court’s May 8 ruling, relaxing its ban on fresh approvals for commercial release of any genetically modified (GM) crop.

An untested technology is never safe to be unleashed freely. If you have a technology, there is also a need of a regulatory system to control it. This is not so in India. For years we have been witnessing the proliferation of Bt. Cotton, and the socio-economic hazards spelled by it. Illegal varieties of seeds like Navbharat seeds are entering the market without any check. The companies are fuelling that it’s a great success. But we are witnessing our farmers committing suicides. Huge input costs combined with crop failures are spelling disaster. Several independent studies, NGO reports, and State governments have proved that Bt. cotton has failed very badly, at least in rain fed areas, yet there is neither any policy to check it nor any investigation going on to survey the connection between the crop failure and farmer suicides.

Continued resistance over sales of genetically modified (GM) rice in the US and its non-acceptance in the European Union (EU) have threatened the success of the transgenic hybrid seeds in the agriculture sector, according to a Rabobank report published on Thursday. India, the world’s second largest rice producer after China with a capacity of 91 million tonnes (MT) is also facing resistance over the use of GM seeds. [...] Burdened with strict regulations, the EU has banned imports of US rice. Until the discovery of the GM variety LL 601, the EU had purchased about 250,000 tonnes (milled-equivalent basis) of rice annually from the US. While sales of milled rice to other markets may increase, these sales will not cover the gap left by the loss of a major share of the EU market, the report said.

The GM industry has nothing to cheer about. SC has not vacated its order on fresh field trials of genetically modified crops. The apex court has only allowed ongoing and earlier approved trials to continue, while not vacating the ban that it had imposed in an interim order of September 22, 2006, banning any fresh field trials of GM crops. [...] Meanwhile, the lawyer for the petitioners in the case, Prashant Bhushan, has sent a legal notice to the environment ministry for the ”misinterpretation” of the SC order by minister of state for environment and forests, Namo Narain Meena.

The farmers of the traditional Basmati growing areas of Haryana, Punjab, J&K, Delhi and Uttarakhand will get new rice variety having higher yield (37 q/ha) than Pusa Basmati 1. Pusa 1460 (IET 18990) is developed by pyramiding bacterial leaf blight (BLB) resistance genes (xa13 & Xa21) in the background of Pusa Basmati 1 through marker assisted backcross breeding.

If any proof about failure of genetically modified Bt cotton in the main cotton growing area of Vidarbha was needed, it came on Wednesday from Maharashtra agriculture minister Balasaheb Thorat. After a meeting with agriculture experts, officials, people’s representatives for the coming Kharif season, Thorat admitted that the much-hyped, and high-priced Bt seeds were only adding to the burden of Vidarbha’s farmers. Thorat said the opening of Bt to more private companies was likely to bring down the prices and make it more affordable for farmers.

While there has been a relaxation in principle of the ORDER of the 22nd December, in point of fact the restricitions that the GEAC are bound up in, place the most severe conditions on them and open up a whole arena of action for farmers and civil society groups. If the Union of India and its Regulator, do not comply, they will face contempt of Court. It will be virtully impossible for them to carry out field trials given our small landholdings, with isolation distances of 200m.

Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Shri Namo Narayan Meena said bio-technology will dominate the 21st century just as information technology dominated the last century. [...] The entire research activities of the country which was at a standstill, will get momentum and Genetic Engineering Approval Committee will be able to work speedily. Shri Meena assured along with treating this field as a priority area with investments, priority will be given to proper risk assessment and appropriate measures to mitigate its adverse impacts.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday permitted field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops approved by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) in 2006, but with riders. A special bench consisting of Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan, Justice DK Jain and Justice Tarun Chatterjee said the GM crop fields should be at least 200 metres away from fields with normal crops. One lead scientist should be made responsible for the trials. The scientist, the bench said, should ensure that non-GM crop fields were not contaminated by pollen flow from GM crops. The GEAC should lay down a protocol for ensuring 0.01% mcontamination by GM crops, it added.