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The Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry has revived a plan to conduct
field trials of genetically modified crops by Piyaporn Wongruang .
Minister Thira Sutabutra yesterday said he had told the Agriculture
Department to draft guidelines on how the open-field trials should be
conducted to ensure the environment and human health were not affected.

The department is expected to complete the transgenic crop trial framework
by the end of the month, and the ministry would ask cabinet for approval of
the draft next month, he said.

GM crops must pass three levels of biosafety tests _ laboratory, greenhouse,
and open field trials _ before being endorsed for mass production.

Mr Thira said experiments on GM crops in the country had so far only been at
the greenhouse level.

Open field trials were necessary if scientists wanted to know the possible
impact of GM plants on the environment.

Field trials and commercialisation of GM crops were put on hold under a
cabinet resolution in 2001, shortly after the spread of GM cotton which
raised fears among the public of the adverse impact of GM plants on human
health and the environment.

In the past six years, the ministry, which oversees experiments and planting
of GM crops, has repeatedly tried to lift the ban, but failed due to
opposition from environmentalists and farmers.

Protests against transgenic crop growing resurfaced in 2004, when GM papaya
grown at an experimental field inside the department's research station in
Khon Kaen were found in non-GM papaya plantations nearby.

Scientists say that genetic engineering technology will help reduce the use
of harmful farm chemicals and fertiliser.

Mr Thira said the ministry decided to press ahead with field trials of GM
crops because some neighbouring countries have been working on the
technology and had yielded research outcomes that could put Thailand at a
competitive disadvantage in the farm sector.

He said that many farmers suffered low farm yields from disease and pest
outbreaks, which could be corrected by GM technology. ''We care about
farmers, and we are not working on this issue without reason,'' he said.

Adisak Sreesunpagit, the Agriculture Department chief, said the department
would try figuring out how the open field trials should be conducted.

He said the trials should be conducted under tight controls, while the
experimental fields should be located away from other farms to prevent the
plants from spreading into conventional crop areas.

If cabinet approves the trial, the potential crops which could be planted
would be papaya, tomato, chilli, and pineapple, he said.

Mr Adisak said it was unreasonable to ban GM crop field trials.

''Can anyone tell me how exactly GM crops are harmful?'' he said.

Witoon Lianchamroon, director of BioThai, a non-profit organisation
promoting biodiversity, said the ministry had not yet shown the public how
it could stop GM crops spreading to conventional farms.

He said the ministry should drop the idea for the public good.

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