The Telegraph Over 60 scientists have signed a statement accusing the Indian Council of Agriculture Research of trying to ‘silence the voices’ of public sector scientists Sections of scientists on Monday asked India’s apex agricultural research agency to revoke what they described as a “gag order” intended to prevent former government researchers from articulating concerns about Genetically Modified Mustard. Over 60 scientists have signed a statement accusing the Indian Council of Agriculture...

-India Spend India's transition to sustainable farming has to be calibrated and orchestrated well, drawing lessons from the successes of India's Green Revolution and the recent crisis in Sri Lanka, says sustainable farming expert P.S. Vijayshankar Bengaluru: The production-centric intensive agriculture brought about by India's Green Revolution in the 1960s, using high-yielding seeds, fertilisers and high levels of groundwater utilisation, helped India achieve food self-sufficiency by the 1970s, but has created a...

-Business Standard Claims that GM mustard will lead to increased yield are incorrect; we must focus on other solutions. India is the fifth-largest producer and also the seventh-largest importer of edible oils in the world. Though significant progress has been made in the production and yield of oilseeds in India, our annual vegetable oil import has been about $10 billion in recent years. The Ministry of Environment is allowing for genetically modified...

-The Hindu This is the first time that a Central ministry has endorsed the safety and benefits of the seed in Parliament Field trials of the transgenic mustard variety, DMH-11, revealed them to be higher yielding and they didn’t deter the pollination habits of honey bees, Union science minister Jitendra Singh said in Rajya Sabha in a written response to a query. Dhara Mustard Hybrid-11 (DMH-11) had recently been approved by the Genetic...

-The Hindu “It would have been better if seed production trials take place in a controlled rather than in an open environment so as to assess various risks before conducting open field trials,” read a statement by the AIPSN. Following the go-ahead for production and field testing of hybrid seeds of genetically modified (GM) mustard, All-India Peoples Science Network (AIPSN) has demanded that the open field tests, if any, be conducted with...