The Hindu Business Line : Task force on GM rice meets today

Hyderabad April 10 The task force set up by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) to look into the bio-safety issues related to GM (genetically modified) rice will meet in Tirupati on Wednesday.

The committee, headed by Prof. A.R. Reddy, Vice-Chancellor, Yogi Vemana University (Kadapa), will discuss guidelines and bio-safety issues, according to Dr B.C. Viraktamath, Project Director of Directorate of Rice Research.

Talking to Business Line on the sidelines of the 42nd all-India rice research group meet, Dr Viraktamath, who is also member of the task force, said the meeting would deliberate on how to go about it.

Asked about the status of experiments on Bt rice at the directorate, he said they were in preliminary stages. "We have to be very careful with regard to Bt rice. There are a lot of issues involved," he added. The issue of GM rice had triggered a row with rice exporters asking the DBT to stop the GM rice field trials so as not to put exports of Basmati rice in jeopardy. Their fear stemmed from the fact that GM contamination disrupted the US supplies to the European Union, a market that APEDA (Agricultural and Processed Foods Export Development Authority) explored for long-grained rice.

Farmers in Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu too, opposed efforts to introduce GM rice. The GEAC (Genetic Engineering Approval Committee) has already taken a policy decision not to permit open field trials of GM rice in proximity to Basmati growing areas.

Call to hike output

A national-level meet on rice has called for efforts to increase production and productivity, keeping in mind the projected demand of 120 million tonnes by 2020 against the present 90 mt.

Scientists, who gathered here from across India and abroad, to attend the three-day `42nd All-India Rice Research Group Meeting', have felt that hundreds of efficient rice varieties were yet to reach the farming community.

Dr B.C. Viraktamath, Project Director of Directorate of Rice Research, said the country needed to add at least two mt from now to reach the targeted 120 mt in 2020.

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