Crops on trial

The Bharatiya Kisan Union's movement against the field trials of Bt rice reopens the debate on GM crops.

THE tranquil routine of Rangaraju's retired life, in Ramanathapuram village near Coimbatore, was in for a rude shock. On the morning of November 10, people from the Tamil Nadu Farmers Association landed up at his doorstep. They wanted to uproot the harvest in his farm. The farmers told him that his rice field had a genetically modified (GM) crop whose harvest could contaminate food supplies if it was not destroyed. A bewildered Rangaraju did not know how to react. He asked them for time to consult Mahyco, the company that was conducting a field trial on his plot. But before he knew it, the 150-strong crowd had uprooted the Bt rice crop from his field. In a matter of one day, this former schoolteacher found himself in the midst of an international controversy.

"We didn't know what kind of rice they were growing," Hemalata, his daughter, told Frontline over the phone. "My father signed an agreement with the company, but didn't study it carefully. We thought it was a hybrid seed, we didn't know it was something different." Hemalata's family feels cheated. "It is fraud by the company. They did not tell us much. Let us hope it will not put our next crop in danger."

Rangaraju is not alone. In October, Bharatiya Kissan Union (BKU) activists burned the harvest of Bt rice trials in two farms, in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. In Rampura village in Karnal district of Haryana, activists burned the field to prevent contamination. In Rudrapur village in Gorakhpur district of U.P., they got the police to seize the grain that was lying in the plot. Along with the local panchayat president, the BKU filed a police complaint against Mahyco, the Department of Biotechnology and the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), for several violations found in a GM rice trial plot.

Here too, the farmers and the panchayat were not aware that the seeds were genetically modified and they had no clue about the likely dangers of growing them in their fields. They had merely leased out the land to Mahyco and signed the agreements without knowing what GM meant. The company is conducting 10 field trials of Bt rice in six States.

"They are toying with farmers' ignorance about GM technology," said Rakesh Tikait, spokesperson of the BKU. "Knowing the unreliable track record of the company and the state regulators, we had to destroy the crop to prevent contamination from the trial plots into the food supply chain where unwary consumers are eating untested products. This is all the more dangerous in a Basmati rice-growing belt of the country. The Department of Biotechnology's guidelines require destruction of the GM plant material after the trial. By burning the crop, we have made sure these guidelines are not flouted."

Bt rice is a genetically engineered seed designed to make the crop resistant to pests such as stem borer and leaf folder. The seeds are created by inserting a synthetic version of a gene (called Cry1Ac) from a naturally occurring soil bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) into the plant's DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) so that the plant creates its own toxin to destroy the pests. India has allowed the commercial sale of Bt cotton seeds, and the trials for Bt brinjal are also under way.

In September, the Supreme Court temporarily stopped GEAC from granting permission for any more field trials of GM crops. The court was responding to a petition that pointed out several irregularities in the regulatory procedures. Currently, Indian rules allow field trials to start even before biosafety tests are completed. Moreover, monitoring of these trials are extremely lax, almost non-existent. The petition also pointed out the inherent conflict of interest evident in the constitution of regulatory authorities. Senior office-bearers and members of the GEAC are also part of biotech industry-promoted bodies or crop developers themselves in their personal or institutional capacities. Currently, around 150 trials for GE food crops are under way, ranging from brinjal to tomato, mustard, maize and, of course, rice.

No country has cleared the commercial sale of Bt rice. Its impact on human health has not yet been tested fully. A recent study in Madhya Pradesh found that farm workers exposed to Bt cotton had allergies - skin eruptions, swollen faces and so on. Moreover, the Bt toxin can enter the human digestive system and interfere with the bacteria in the intestines. The Cry1Ac gene is a powerful immunogen and can prompt adverse reactions from the immune system. Studies worldwide have shown that eating GM food could result in wasteful growth of gut tissues, bacterial proliferation, intestinal tumours, immune system suppression, and interference with the development of vital organs and reproduction. Earlier this year, there were mass deaths of cattle grazing on the remains in harvested Bt cotton fields in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh.

Besides, GM plants could harm the environment and biodiversity. Once out in the fields, there is no way of knowing whether normal plant varieties have been contaminated by the GM variety through pollination, which could lead to the extinction of local crop varieties. Moreover, there is also a danger that insects could develop resistance to the toxin, after which more pesticides would be needed to get rid of them.

Farmers' groups are not alone in their protest against GM crops. Recently, rice exporters held a press conference with Greenpeace demanding that the government halt the field trials. They are worried that if there is any contamination, it could harm exports. In August, rice exports of the United States were adversely affected when it was found that certain consignments contained GM-contaminated rice. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) admitted that a variety of Bayer's Liberty Link rice that was not approved for consumption or cultivation anywhere in the world (LL rice 601) had been detected in rice intended for export. This raised an alarm in the European Union and Japan and adversely affected U.S. rice trade. Indian exporters are scared that Indian exports could be similarly harmed if there is even a slight doubt of contamination.

"It is shocking and unfortunate that the government is allowing even small-scale field trials of GE rice in the Basmati-growing region. This is a matter of grave concern for all Basmati rice exporters in this region," said Brigadier Anil Adlakha, executive director of the All India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA). "Any contamination from GE rice field trials will be a death knell for millions of farmers and exporters. We want the government to draw the correct lesson from the plight of the U.S. rice industry and stop further GE rice field trials in this region now. If the government does not heed our warning, it could prove to be a costly and irreversible blunder," he said.

Greenpeace recently found that GE rice from field trials in China had found its way into imported Chinese rice products in France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Indian exporters are afraid that India's trade will suffer if any part of the harvest from field trials in the country finds its way into food supplies. At present, India exports 400 million tonnes of rice worth Rs.700 crores.

"Why are they so concerned about exports? We should think of filling our own bellies first. Bt rice will help increase productivity by reducing crop damage due to pest attacks," M.K. Sharma, managing director of Mahyco, told Frontline. As much as 20 per cent of the yield could be lost owing to the stem borer pest, which Bt rice guards against, he added. Sharma said that Bt cotton sales had been rising exponentially every year because farmers found them effective. However, he dodged the fact that the places in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh where Bt cotton use is amongst the highest are also the areas from where the largest number of suicides by farmers were reported.

Outraged at the protests against the field trials, Sharma said, "These people are preventing technology from reaching farmers. They are standing in the way of scientific research. While testing is still under way, how can they say that the crop is dangerous? They have done this for cheap publicity and we have filed a police complaint against them for damaging our trial crop." He countered the allegation that proper norms were not adhered to. "We have followed all the rules, keeping 20-metre isolation around the field to prevent pollination outside. The question of contamination does not arise as we were about to burn the field as per the regulations so that there is no trace of any plant material. Moreover, the farmers had full knowledge of the trial. They signed agreements with us in which all the conditions were laid out."

Environmental and agricultural research groups insist that they too were asking for scientific and transparent research. "While dealing with such technology, we have to follow the precautionary principle," said Kavitha Kuruganti from the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Hyderabad. "Until independent scientific laboratory studies show that this crop is safe for human consumption, the government should not allow any field trials to take place." At present, the biosafety testing is done by the company itself.

Even though signatures were taken, field trials were conducted without warning the plot owners about the environmental hazards. "Contamination can take place even beyond the isolation distance. State and local authorities weren't informed either. Regulatory agencies are not monitoring the field trials properly," Kuruganti said. During field trials of Bt cotton and Bt brinjal, it was found that untested products from the trials were being sold in the local market, she added.

Often GE technology is pushed as the solution to India's food security problem. However, environmental groups challenge this assumption, asserting that there are several other indigenous plant varieties that can boost farm productivity. "The real solutions for sustainable rice production already exist in farms around the world. They are based on traditional knowledge combined with cutting-edge technology, and are far more reliable and acceptable than destructive industrial agriculture and imprecise genetic engineering," said Nammalwar, well-known organic farming scientist.

"The world's most important staple crop is too important to gamble with. There are 140,000 different varieties of rice, with an enormous diversity of traits such as resistance to different pests and diseases and capacity to grow in salty or dry conditions," said Divya Raghunandan from Greenpeace India.

"We don't need genetic engineering to take advantage of these traits - we need to preserve this resource and knowledge and combine it with safe hitech breeding techniques." Greenpeace has just released a report called `The Future of Rice' by scientists Dr. Emerlito Borromes and Dr. Debal Deb, which explains that GE technology is unnecessary since other more sustainable options exist to increase rice yields. Judging by the way field trials are being conducted, it seems like it is not only the farmers on whose plots the tests are under way, but also the Indian people at large who are left clueless of the dangers that GE technology could unleash.