The Hindu Business Line : Decision soon on fresh trials for GM mustard

THE Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) will meet `very soon' to decide whether there is a need for further open field trials of Proagro Company Private Ltd's genetically modified (GM) mustard hybrids.

The Director-General of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Dr Panjab Singh, told reporters on Monday that the GM hybrids had been tested at four locations under the aegis of the All-India Coordinated Research Project on Rapeseed-Mustard, headquartered in Bharatpur (Rajasthan). These include Sriganganagar in Rajasthan, Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, besides two other locations in Gujarat and UP.

``In the next GEAC meeting, we will have to decide whether these trials would suffice or there is need to undertake trial sowings in further locations to generate adequate data. Our trials in the four locations (based on sowings conducted in rabi 2001) show that the yields in the GM hybrids are 18-24 per cent higher than that of existing high-yielding rapeseed-mustard varieties,'' Dr Singh said.

According to Dr Paresh Verma, Director (Research) at Proagro, the company had undertaken trials in as many as 65 locations all over the country. ``These trials have been conducted using the same criteria (three year advance hybrid trial methodology) and check varieties (Varuna and Kranti) employed by ICAR. Moreover, we have used the protocols evolved by the Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (MEC) under the Department of Biotoechnology's Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation, which has representation from ICAR,'' he said.

But Dr Singh held that the clearance for commercial cultivation of the GM hybrids cannot be accorded on the basis of the company's trials. ``As far as we are concerned, no variety or hybrid can be released for commercial planting without passing through our multi-locational varietal release mechanism. There cannot be an exception in the case of GM mustard,'' he said.

Dr Singh's statements assumes significance, especially in the context of the GEAC Chairman, Mr A.M. Gokhale's own observation ``there is no need for conducting fresh trials this season'' and what is required is only ``an analysis of the data already generated''. Mr Gokhale said the GEAC's next meeting would basically address the problem of `divergent interpretation' of the existing data.

With the current sowing season for mustard heading towards culmination, time is running out for the GEAC to decide on whether fresh trials under ICAR aegis are required to validate the company's claims on the yield and pollen transfer aspects of its transgenic mustards. If the trials are conducted in the current season, it could generate further data to facilitate commercial release of the hybrids during rabi 2003.

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