Farmers to meet in Chennai on GE rice: UUK president

Coimbatore, Nov 13: All farmers associations would meet in Chennai tomorrow to chalkout an agitational programme against the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University's (TNAU) statement that genetically engineered (GE) rice was harmless and environment friendly.

This was stated by Uzavar Uzaippalar Katchi (UUK) President K Chellamuthu here today.

Talking to UNI, he recalled that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had also stated that farmers in Maharashtra had committed suicide due to growing of Bt cotton.

Mr Chellamuthu said if the statement by TNAU Vice-Chancellor Dr Ramasamy was correct, he should spell out why the farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra committed suicide.

If the GE rice was harmless and environment friendly, they should have clearly explained to the farmers about it and could have cultivated it with the support of peasants, instead of doing it secretly, he said.

Mr Chellamuthu also challenged the university Vice-Chancellor for a debate on the ill-effects of GE rice or Bt cotton.

Meanwhile, police have registered a case against Mr Chellamuthu and 88 other farmers, who trespassed the field and uprooted matured GE rice crop from a field at Ramanathapuram near Alanthurai village about 25 km from here on Friday.

TNAU had said, in a press statement, that a group of farmers belonging to certain organisations destroyed trial of the Genetically Modified (GM) rice field here on the pretext of the farmers interest and the ill-effects on environment from GM crops recently. The statement said development of GM had been recognised worldover as one of the methods of crop improvement for the past two decades.

Across the globe such GM crops were cultivated in over 222 million acres by about 8.5 million farmers in 21 countries. The area under these crops have increased year after year eversince this crop was first planted in 1996. In India, Bt cotton was the only GM crop approved so far for commercial cultivation. The area under this crop has increased phenomenally from few thousands acres in 2002 to more than 3.25 million acres in 2005.

It was alleged by some activists that Bt crops were injected with virulent virus, which was infact untrue. In Bt rice a gene from Bacillus Thuringiensis has been introduced with a view to express Cry 1 ac protein that kills pests such as stem borer and leaf folder.

They are not capable of killing insects belonging to non-target groups. It has been proved through precise biosafety experiments beyond doubt that the protein is non-toxic to human beings and animals, the statement added.

According to some activists, Bt hybrid seeds become infertile and cannot be resown. Both in Bt cotton and Bt rice (under field trials) the GM trait has been introduced into the hybrids which are popular among farmers and this was the reason why such hybrids were chosen for genetic modification.

The Commercial release of GM crops is regulated in India by the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (under the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology) and the Genetic Engineering Approval committee of the Union Government.

Besides, biosafety committees at state and university level monitor the field trials vigorously. The regulatory system in India has evolved over the years and the system was well in place, the statement added.

UNI