Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Monday, Mar 20, 2006
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Monday, Mar 20, 2006 |
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Agri-Biz & Commodities
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Bio-tech & Genetics Will `terminator' seed tech gain entry? Our Bureau
Fact file Seed of the crop grown from terminator seeds cannot be used, since the technology renders it sterile and, hence, don't germinate.
Hyderabad , March 19 Is the `terminator' seed technology, set to make its entry into the country? Yes, argues a group called the South Against Genetic Engineering (SAGE), and wants the Union Government, to be firm on continuing the ban on it. More than five years ago the Centre had imposed the ban following an uproar from NGOs, farmers and a section of scientists. Terminator was the term used to describe Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURTS), which threatened to usurp the rights of farmers to save seed, through a new technology. SAGE, which is a network of people from different sections of society from South India, plans to submit a memorandum to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on March 20 with five lakh signatures from people across Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu urging him to continue the ban on Terminator seed technology. SAGE is also timing the event just a day before the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) sits and take a decision on whether to continue the ban or not. What is terminator technology? If we use terminator seeds and grow a crop we cannot use the seed from that crop, since the technology renders it sterile and hence don't germinate.
US backing
At a press conference here, the SAGE convenor, Mr P.V. Satheesh, said though it was banned, Australia, Canada and New Zealand had regrouped under the backing of the US that was not even a signatory to the CBD. At CBD's first meeting in Granada, Spain, in January 2006, he said the Terminators were successful in watering down the current moratorium on the technology to a "case-by-case" consideration by different Governments. The recent US-India agriculture agreements also provide another frightening context to the introduction of the terminator technology into India. The US is aggressively pushing its genetic engineering industry all over the world and India is its latest, he said. SAGE felt that the Centre should argue that the ban was in the interest of conservation of biodiversity, farming and indigenous populations and livelihoods of farmers.
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