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Field Trials & Violations |
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The very first GM field trials that were permitted in India of Monsanto's Bollgard brand Bt Cotton were allowed by the Department of Biotechnology [DBT] rather than the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee [GEAC] which is the authorised body to accord such permissions. The Environment Protection Act [EPA]'s 1989 Rules clearly state that the GEAC shall be responsible "for approval of proposals relating to release of genetically engineered organisms or products into the environment including experiment field trials". Thus began the history of violations in the GM field trial regulation in the country. Right from 1998 onwards, GM crop developers have been blatantly flouting guidelines related to biosafety and scientific research - what is worse, despite evidence produced and presented to the GEAC repeatedly by various civil society groups and despite the Environment Protection Act having stringent penalty clauses, there has been no liability fixed for such objectionable violations. The violations witnessed so far can be broadly classified into ones related to "in-the-trial-plot" test protocol violations (recommended layout not followed etc.), related to containment violations (recommended physical or biological barriers not put up, for example), related to monitoring requirements (monitoring teams visiting at the time of harvest, for instance) or simply the sale of untested GMOs from the plots entering the regular food supply chain! Given below are links to a few official reports. The report from Chattisgarh is from an Inquiry commissioned by the state agriculture minister in November 2006 specifically to look into compliance to guidelines, amongst other issues. The report from Acharya N G Ranga Agriculture University in Hyderabad is the report from their monitoring of a Bt Okra trial. The AICRP report on Bt Brinjal report highlights the fact that trial data is not even subjected to some statistical analysis before conclusions are drawn! Irregularities in Field Trials in West Bengal - 2007 Irregularities in Trials in West Bengal 2005-06 Food crop trials-2006-some illegalities Bt Bhindi trial in Guntur, 2005 - illegalities All India Coordinated Research Project on Vegetable Cultivation [AICRP] report on Bt Brinjal trials Acharya NG Ranga Agriculture University, Hyderabad's reports on Bt Brinjal and Bt Okra trials |