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Our Bureau

HYDERABAD, Dec. 5

A PUBLIC forum on genetic engineering, agriculture and farmers rights has declared "there is no place for transgenic crops in Asia and elsewhere in the world". The two-day forum was organised here by the Deccan Development Society (DDS), South Asia Network for Food Ecology and Culture (SANFEC) and Grain Resources Action International (GRAIN), all non-Government organisations.

"The Hyderabad Statement of Solidarity", adopted by the forum, states that privatisation of biological diversity and farmers' knowledge is a violation of farmers' rights. The statement expresses solidarity with the farmers and farming communities that are "keeping diversity alive".

The forum stated that public agricultural research funding must be re-oriented towards biodiversity-based and farmer-led research. It was against the proposed collaborative research project between the Indira Gandhi Agricultural University of Chhattisgarh and Syngenta Corporation, "which not only threatens to take physical possession of rice germplasm but also divests the farmers of their rights towards the varieties that they have developed".

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