Campaign Accuses Mahyco of Invalid GM Rice Trials

Matt Hopkins Posted by Matt Hopkins|23 September 2008

Dr. Suman Sahai of the Gene Campaign – which is seeking a ban on the field trials of Bt rice in India – accused Mahyco Seed Company of conducting field trials "flouting every prescribed regulation and condition." She said Bt rice hybrids belonging to Mahyco were planted in March and harvested in August; as this is not the rice season in the state where it was planted, Sahai claimed it was not possible to test the efficacy of the Bt-induced resistance to pests.

"To choose such a season is a mockery of trials and only to show that trials had taken place as no authentic data can be collected in this manner," said Sahai. She also alleged that there was no monitoring by the company; instead, a local farmer was appointed as a caretaker, who harvested the crop and stored the seeds. Additionally, said Sahai, there was no physical isolation of the trial field via fencing, netting, or any other type of containment of the crop, and called the trials "in violation of regulations and conditions laid down for field trials of genetically modified crops."