www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

Government has turned down an application by the Agriculture Research
Council to conduct field trials on genetically modified cassava, saying it
wants scientists to first show the plants are stable in contained greenhouse
experiments, March 2007 by Tamar Kahn.

The cassava has been engineered to improve its starch content for
industrial purposes such as biofuel production, and is not intended for
animal feed or human consumption.

The decision signals South African regulators? careful scrutiny of proposed
research in this controversial field. Although SA is one of only a handful
of African countries with a legal framework governing genetically modified
crops, activists have charged that government lacks the capacity to enforce
the rules.

The executive council of the directorate of genetic resources management in
the agriculture department had rejected the council?s application to import
baby genetically modified cassava plants and use them in field trials
without first conducting tests in the secure environment of a glasshouse,
said the agriculture department?s Julian Jaftha.

Attempts to obtain comment from the research council?s scientists were
unsuccessful. The department had asked the council to gather data on the
stability of the genes inserted into the plants from glasshouse studies
before it would consider giving the go-ahead for field trials. It also
wanted additional information on trials conducted in the Virgin Islands.

The decision was welcomed by the African Centre for Biosafety, which
interpreted the move as a sign that regulators were taking an increasingly
cautious approach to research on genetically modified crops.

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