In allowing large-scale trials of Bt Brinjal, the Genetic Engineering
Approval Committee (GEAC) of the environment ministry may have violated its
own June 2007 rule that states that such trials will be allowed only after
complete biosafety data has been generated. "It is unfortunate that the GEAC
has allowed large-scale trials of Bt Brinjal without biosafety having been
cleared and without making the data public. In the process, it is breaking
its own rules which were reiterated in its June 2007 meeting,? said
Hyderabad-based Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA) executive director
G V Ramanjaneyulu.
"It is inappropriate for GEAC to have called for feedback from the
public on the so-called biosafety data put up by Mahyco and not to share the
expert committee's findings in a similar manner on its website before taking
a decision on this matter," said CSA?s Kavitha Kuruganti.

In fact, numerous questions on biosafety have been raised on Bt
Brinjal, particularly on the protocol of tests conducted or commissioned by
Mahyco, data analysis and conclusions drawn. Some of the prescribed tests
like foliar feeding studies (which have been mandated after reports of
animal mortality and morbidity after open grazing on Bt Cotton fields) have
not been completed on Bt Brinjal, assert environment and farm activist
groups. This was evident from the perusal of GEAC minutes and the fact that
no findings have been made public thus far, said CSA.

?The GEAC is shorting the circuits of processes and aiding a company
which had not even bothered to follow the conditions imposed on it by the
regulators in the previous permissions. Recent information shared by the
GEAC under the Right To Information Act showed once again that Mahyco has
repeatedly violated the conditional permissions given for trials, including
by taking up trials in locations where they were not permitted," Mr
Ramanjaneyulu added.

Large-scale trials have reportedly been allowed in 13 different
locations, to be led and coordinated by the Indian Vegetable Research
Institute in Varanasi and all trials would, it is understood, take place
inside the NARS campuses (not in farmers' fields).

Meanwhile, an independent expert committee on Bt Brinjal set up by CSA
and Thanal, which went through the all India coordinated research project on
vegetable cultivation report for 2005-06 on Bt Brinjal trials, has noted
that little additional information can be expected to be garnered from the
ICAR-supervised agronomic trials for Bt Brinjal. "It is therefore not clear
what else will the agronomic trials will prove," said Ms Kuruganti.


[economictimes.indiatimes.com]