The state government has finally woken up to bio-piracy and
unauthorised genetic research of high-yielding indigenous paddy seeds by
various organisations in Kendrapara and Koraput districts.
The state government had received reports of such nefarious
activities. The legality of such research amounting to bio-piracy is being
looked into, chairman of Orissa State Seeds Corporation Mr Golakh Behari
Nayak said here recently.

Various organisations espousing agriculture and environment-related
issues had earlier drawn the attention of the government and had serious
doubts on the genetic research of indigenous paddy seeds being carried out
in and around the swampy Bhitarkanika wetland and hilly terrain of Koraput
district.
The OSSC has received reports that the biotechnology farms had
resorted to bio-piracy, thereby threatening to wipe out the high-yielding
local paddy species from these areas, Mr Nayak said. ?We will shortly depute
teams of agronomists and agriculture researchers to these areas to keep tab
on the nature of activities of biotechnology farms,? he added. There is
luxuriant growth of a specific high yielding and aboriginal paddy crop in
the forest area of Koraput. The species, which are neither cultivated nor
sown, sprout up in the forest and it provides food security to local tribal
settlers.

But these unique paddy crops is under threat following genetic
engineering of its seeds by certain farms in the name of research work.
These indigenous crops are fast disappearing from the hilly terrain of south
Orissa.
Similar is the trend in Bhitarkanika wetland region. Among the rare
and precious species found here is wild mangrove rice (porresia coarctata),
a saline resistant paddy variety nowhere found across the globe. And the
Bhitarkanika?s porresia coarctata species would be the much-sought-after
paddy breed in times to come. The wild rice grown in mangroves would be the
only species which can survive in salinated areas to provide food security.

?In the backdrop of this global warming-induced catastrophic changes,
the mangrove forests within Bhitarkanika and Mahanadi delta region have
acquired international importance and all efforts should be made to protect
our indigenous genetic resource base,? according to Mr Biswajit Mohanty of
Wildlife Society of Orissa.


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