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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | ICAR forms panel to unravel mystery of Monsanto gene in ‘indigenous’ Bt cotton by Sandip Das

ICAR forms panel to unravel mystery of Monsanto gene in ‘indigenous’ Bt cotton by Sandip Das

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published Published on Jan 17, 2012   modified Modified on Jan 17, 2012

The Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) will set up an expert committee to look into patent violation issues concerning Bikaneri Narma, which was claimed to be the country’s first indigenous public sector-bred Bt cotton (genetically modified) seed variety.
 
Bikaneri Narma Bt Cotton also promoted as ‘completely indigenous Bt variety’ was developed by Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR), Nagpur, and University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, along with Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI). However, the variety was actually found to have a Bt gene originally patented by US farm product multinational Monsanto.

According to ICAR director general S Ayyappan, the variety has been withdrawn from market since 2009 to stop the production of these ‘indigenous’ GM cotton seeds after the report of patent violation.

“We are going to set up a committee to look all aspects of the patent violations and also scientifically find out the flaws in the entire process,” Ayyappan told FE.

Meanwhile, civil society groups have become vocal in their demand for a moratorium on research on all transgenic crops in ICAR-affiliated institutes.

“In effect, the Indian biotechnologists, supported with enormous amounts of taxpayers’ money, doing research on developing indigenous 'biotechnology products' have misled the nation by passing off the Monsanto technology as their own,” the coalition for a GM-Free India said in a statement.

“This episode shows that the government-owned scientific establishment and regulators are not to be completely trusted on the issue of research and development,” Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture convenor Kavitha Kuruganti said.

Bikaneri Narma was released for farmers as BN Bt by CICR in 2009 and was termed as an indigenous Bt variety that is distinct from the Monsanto hybrid where farmers have to buy new seeds each season. Farmers could reuse BN Bt for many years.

In April 2008, during deliberations in then Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, the GEAC members initially approved large-scale field trials for BN Bt and then in a meeting next month, reviewed the decision and gave approval for the commercialisation of the seed without any field trial.

The rationale was that since the seeds of BN Bt could be saved by farmers, a large scale field trial is tantamount to commercial release. However, after a short time of its much publicised release in 2009 BN Bt was withdrawn from the market without any explanation and no reports were made available about its performance till then.

India, the world's second biggest cotton producer, is heading towards harvesting a record 35.9 million bales of 170 kg each in the 2011-12 season (October-September), mainly attributed to BT cotton seeds. Over 80% of the total cotton acreage is under Bt crop in the country. The Bt cotton variety was developed using a gene – Cry1AC – derived from soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, which makes the crop resistant to pink boll worms.


The Financial Express, 17 January, 2012, http://www.financialexpress.com/news/icar-forms-panel-to-unravel-mystery-of-monsanto-gene-in-indigenous-bt-cotton/900351/0


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