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Involve farmers in t-gene issue to check danger, minister tells states

Union minister of state for urban affairs and employment, Bandaru Dattatreya, has urged the state governments to involve farmers' wings of all political parties and farmers' bodies in the trials of bollgard seed to ensure that Monsanto company did not violate the permission given to it in this regard.

At a media conference in Hyderabad on Sunday, he discounted the ''propaganda and misinformation'' that the BJP-led government at the Centre had permitted Monsanto to undertake experiments of terminator seeds.

The Centre would not compromise on country's food security by permitting terminator seed to germinate on Indian soil, he asserted.

He said the department of biotechnology had only permitted trials of bollgard seed which the company claimed was resistant to bollworm pest.

It shoud be seen whether the company had violated the conditions of permission by experimenting with the terminator gene, he said and assured that stringent action would be taken if any such violation was brought to the Centre's notice.

Dattatreya said seed certification was the responsibility of the state governments. They have to verify this by seizing the entire seed produced in the trials and testing them in their laboratories. ''It is common knowledge that seeds produced by seeds having terminator gene will be sterile,'' he added.

However, if it was not the case, the state governments, by involving farmers' organisations, should take a decision on whether the bollgard was an improved seed variety and useful for farmers to increase productivity and income.

UNI

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