The field trial of a genetically modified rice variety has been deferred till an expert committee formed to look into the food security aspect submits its report. West Bengal Environment Minister Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar said here that the three-member committee would file its report on October 30 after which a final decision would be taken. Ghosh told PTI that the trial, scheduled to be held at the Chinsurah Rice Research Station, was stopped following concern expressed by agricultural experts. “Such a trial needs to be carried out at a proper ‘isolation distance’ and the field for the trial has to be made at a minimum distance of 300 metres from other existing crops,” he said quoting the experts.

Maharashtra posts a dismal picture with over 50,000 farmers killing themselves in the country’s richest State in that period. It also remains the worst State for such deaths for a decade now. Close to two-thirds of all farm suicides have occurred in five States: Maharashtra, Karnataka, A.P., Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. [...] ”In fact, a look at the ’Big 5’ who drive the numbers shows the fallout of the agrarian crisis to be as grim as ever. They have actually increased their share of the farm suicides.”

Aiming eradication of child labour practice in Bt Cotton fields, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has written to the Central Labour Ministry to include the Bt Cotton fields under the prohibited list of hazardous areas where child labourers cannot be employed. The move is significant because a large number of child labourers are believed to be toiling in the Bt Cotton fields of Gujarat, North Gujarat in specific. NCPCR had, after its visit to Gujarat earlier this month, expressed anger over the ’rampant’ child labour practice in Bt Cotton fields of Banaskantha district.

The cotton revolution through Bacillus Thuringiensis, popularly known as Bt, has been losing its sheen gradually over the past five years and there has been a consistent decline in cotton yield. Even as the area under Bt has grown to 93 per cent of the total area under the cash crop, the overall yield is estimated to decline to a five-year low this cotton harvesting season that begins October 2011. According to a senior official of the Cotton Development and Research Association of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, the overall yield this year may be less that the last year’s level of 475 kg per ha, because of unfavourable climatic conditions in some of the northern and central states.

The Coalition for a GM-Free India on Friday sent out letters to the Chief Ministers of all states requesting them to take up the issue of Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill, 2011 (BRAI Bill) at the upcoming National Development Council meeting in order to safeguard the health of the people and sustainability of farming from GM crops. [...] GM crops today are seen globally as one of the biggest threats to sustaining agriculture.

Pioneer Overseas Corp. has accused Hyderabad-based Kaveri Seeds of copying the gene structure of a variety of corn developed by the Iowa, US-based firm. [...] The plant variety registered by Kaveri Seeds was developed from its own research, said chief scientific officer Malla Reddy. “We have now moved court against the registry’s decision to allow Pioneer Overseas to oppose our registration by extending the time for such a move,” Reddy said. Pioneer Overseas asked the registry in early September for more time than is stipulated in such cases to file its opposition to Kaveri Seeds’ plant after it allegedly found the Indian company’s research was identical to its own.

the minister of state for environment and forests, Jayanti Natarajan [...] said: ”NBA has decided to proceed as per law against the alleged violators on the basis of reports of the State Biodiversity Board for accessing and using the local brinjal varieties without prior approval of the competent authority.” [... Leo Saldanha] began investigating if the local farmers knew which varieties of brinjal were chosen by the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad for genetic modification with technology support from Mahyco, and whether they approved of this. Saldanha says he wanted to ensure that farmers, who conserved the varieties over generations, got their due under the access and benefit sharing provision of the Act.

Notwithstanding the ban by the State Government, Bt Cotton is being cultivated in the drought-prone areas of Padampur sub-division in the district. Sources said cultivation of Bt Cotton is being covertly promoted in a big way in Gaiselet block of the district. Systematic attempts by the biotech industry and their supporters have seen introduction of Bt Cotton in Orissa with assurances to farmers that it will result in increased yields. And with the area being drought-prone, promise of high yield and economic gain seem to have lured the farmers.

Farmers have a different take from NGOs on weedicide-resistant cotton. [...] Favourable prices apart, another major factor for cotton becoming the preferred crop for Maharashtra’s farmers — proof being the area jump from under seven million to more than 10 million acres in the last ten years — is Bt technology. [...] ”Why not”, is a uniform response one hears when talking to farmers about Roundup Ready Flex cotton. They seem little worried about it fostering seed monopolies or reinforcing technological dependence on a company headquartered in St. Louis, US. For them, the more immediate concern is how to reduce dependence on manual weeding.

Government seems to behell bent upon forcing GM food on us by proposing quick approvals to theindustry under the BRAI Act. ”We will have 9 billion mouths to feed on this earth by 2050 and there will not be enough food for all of us which is why we need to make technological interventions like GM crop to produce more food.” [...] Take the case of India. It has one third of world’s hungry population – roughly 300 million people - deprived of food despite the availability of a continuous surplus of 60 million tonne of food grains. [...] Why can’t we make the surplus food available to the needy? Why don’t be launch a food security programme that builds onself-reliance rather than depend on entitlement doles for the poor? Why do we want to go in for genetically modified or transgenic crops, which are unhealthy and environmentally damaging, and thereby create more problems?