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No GM rice approved for commercial cultivation, says Tomar.
Jul 20, 2022

India has categorically stated that no variety of Genetically Modified (GM) rice has been approved for commercial cultivation in India, and it has not exported any GM rice, Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister for Agriculture, said in a written reply in Lok Sabha on Tuesday while replying to a query on whether GM rice was discovered in a consignment exported to EU in 2021.
 
In his answer, he said a border rejection notification no. 2021.3259 dated June 21 2021 was received for allegedly unauthorised GM rice flour. 'The matter was examined. There was no GMO variety grown in India and there is no possibility of cross contamination even during inland transit. The consignment was tested by the inspection agency having international recognition and issued non-GMO certificate after due testing and verification before the shipment,' he said, adding, 'No variety of GM rice has been approved for commercial cultivation in India.'
 
The Indian government had stated in October 2021 that it will register its concern with France and the European Union over being unjustly identified as the point of origin of 500 tonnes of genetically modified broken rice converted into rice flour by a French company, Westhove, setting aside the fact that the country does not produce any commercial variety of GM rice.
 
In a statement, the Commerce Ministry had contended that the contamination could have happened at a later stage while the imported broken rice was being processed in the EU and may also be a conspiracy to malign the image of India as a reliable supplier of quality rice.
 
New rice strain
To another query on whether the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) is developing a drought and salinity-tolerant rice strain, the Minister replied in the affirmative.
 
Asked whether the development is being done through a new gene editing technology, he said this work is done through CRISPR-Cas9 mediated genome editing technology.
 
He said the research work is carried out with the approval of Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBSC) constituted by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, as per Rules 1989 under Environment (protection) Act 1986.
 
To a query on the time by which the new variety will be available in the market, Tomar said: 'Genome edited lines is expected to be available for field evaluation by kharif 2024 and for general cultivation during 2026, after two years of field testing.'
 
Foodgrains produciton
To a separate query on the estimated foodgrains production in the country, he quoted the third advance estimates and said the estimated production of coarse cereals, pulses, and oilseeds during 2021-22 was more than the average production of last five years (2016-17 to 2020-21).
    
thehindubusinessline.com

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