HYDERABAD, DEC 2: With pressure building up against introduction of genetically modified seeds, the Andhra Pradesh Government has directed Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (India) to stop forthwith its field trials on `bollgard' seed in the state. This follows burning of the crop by farmers in the state. About 200 agitated farmers, suspecting application of the `terminator seed' technology in field trials, uprooted crops spread over 500 square yards in Urugaonda village and set it afire.The company, which has landed in a major controversy, has, however, been given the option to carry out the tests in Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University here under the ``close observation of university scientists.''
The decision was announced by Agriculture Minister K Vidyadhar Rao after a meeting chaired by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had discussed all aspects relating to the trials as well as protests voiced by various parties and farmers organisations.
Andhra Pradesh is the first state to take such an action inregard to Mahyco-Monsanto's field trials. The other states where the company was permitted to carry out trials are Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.
In Andhra Pradesh, the company was allowed to conduct trials at Rentachintala (Guntur district), Manganur (Mahboobnagar), Dendukur (Khammam), Nagatur (Kurnool), Urugonda (Warangal), Kothagadi (Rangareddy) and Ponnari (Adilabad) and experimental trials at Gopalapuram (Prakasam), Pushpanagar (Karimnagar) and Medchal and Kavvaguda (Rangareddy).
The secret manner in which the tests were conducted led to an outcry with many political parties and non-governmental organisations expressing concern and claiming that tests on `bollgard seed' were only a garb to introduce `terminator gene'. The state government initially denied knowledge of any trials by Monsanto but subsequently took the lead in adopting an unanimous resolution in the Assembly in which it urged the Centre to prevent introduction of terminatorgene.
Farmers to sue company, State Govt, Centre
The Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) will file criminal cases against the multinational Monsanto. The Central and State Governments, State Agriculture Minister C Byre Gowda and the Department of Biotechnology will be made parties in the criminal petition, KRRS Chief Prof M D Nanjundaswamy said here on Tuesday.Cases under the Seed Act will be filed in the Magistrate courts of areas where the trials were underway. Asked when the cases would be filed, Nanjundaswamy said, ``We are compiling evidence to show that no safety measures were adopted by Mahyco and Monsanto in conducting the trials. We are waiting for two more documents. As soon as we get them, we will proceed.''
Crops around the land where Monsanto's cotton seeds were undergoing field trials in the State, had already been polluted, he said. ``No single biosafety measure (buffer zone around the genetically engineered cotton, to reduce biopollution like construction of a fencearound the field) was undertaken by Mahyco Monsanto. They did not even demarcate the field as biohazard area,'' he said.
Dismissing statements made by senior adviser at the Department of Biotechnology as ``lies'', Nanjundaswamy said that pollen from the crop could travel 2.5 km and not just 1.5 metres, as claimed.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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