TNAU justifies GE crops trial

Published in The New Indian Express, Coimbatore edition
November 12, 2006

By Francis P Barclay

Coimbatore, Nov 12: Close on the heels of the protest by farmers against genetically engineered (GE) crops at Ramanathapuram village in Alanduari, over 20 km away from here, the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU) has come out with a release allaying the fear of the farmers against GE crops.
``Development of genetically modified cultivars has been recognised world over as one of the methods of crop improvement for the past two decades,'' TNAU Vice-Chancellor Ramasamy said and added that modern biological approaches were employed to improve specific desired traits of crops, which ``is otherwise difficult through conventional methods''.
Driving home his point, he said ``No resistance source is available for cotton bollworm among cultivated genotypes. So, none of the traditional cotton varieties or hybrids is resistant to these pests. This made the
scientists look for alternative sources, and expression of Bt proteins in plants was the answer to the problem of bollworms.''
On the claim that cultivation of Bt cotton led to the suicide of farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, Ramasamy said the area under Bt cotton had increased phenomenally from a few thousand acres in 2002 to over 3.25 million acres in 2005. The farmers' suicides were largely due to drought and use of spurious chemicals for pest control.
Balasubramanian, director of the Centre for Plant Molecular Biology, TNAU, said ``Bt rice has a gene from Bacillus Thuringiensis. It has been introduced to express `Cry1ac' protein to kill pests such as stem borer and
leaf folder. They are not capable of killing insects belonging to the non-target groups.''
Allaying the fear of farmers, he said ``Bt rice is not at all a threat to biodiversity. In fact, the Bt genes can be introduced in any variety or hybrid that is popularly cultivated.''
The scientists from TNAU recently visited the rice field in Alandurai for monitoring, and the trial is conducted as per biosafety guidelines with the approval of the Centre, he claimed.
Reacting to the TNAU's justifications, Jeevanandham, of Green Movement said ``They are mere gimmicks.''
Farmers and Toilers Party president Chellamuthu said ``The GE crops, which are toxic, are a threat to traditional varieties. Besides, the company, which conducts the trials of GE crops, does not follow the government norms
like isolation and placing of placards at the trial site.''
To note, on Friday, members of various farmers' groups like Tamil Nadu Farmers Association, TN Green Movement, TN Organic Farming Movement and Greenpeace, who have been protesting against GE crops and their trials under the umbrella organisation TN Velan Kappu Kuzhu, entered the field of a Rangaraju and destroyed the GE crops under trial there. The field was given in lease to a private sector seed company which has a foreign tie-up.
The company has lodged a complaint and the police have filed a case against 90 persons, including K Chellamuthu and Jeevanantham.