GOLDEN SCARE - A NEW GENETICALLY MODIFIED RICE STRAIN IS BREEDING CONTROVERSY

A clinical trial was cut short in China last month when the government found that 24 children of 6-8 years of age at a primary school in Henyang in Hunan province were to be used as guinea pigs to test a new variety of genetically modified rice known as golden rice.

But, ironically, in the midst of a host of controversies, India’s state-owned research labs — Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) and Hyderabad-based Directorate of Rice Research — are conducting research on golden rice.

”We are breeding golden rice with local species but we are yet to develop a potential line that would meet our dietary requirements,” says S.R. Rao, director at the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) of the Ministry of Science and Technology, who coordinates the golden rice project in India. ”There are still many issues that we need to solve before coming out of the green house. For now, there are no proposals to carry out clinical trials in India.”

Golden rice, created by Swiss agri products firm Syngenta, owes its pale yellow colour to beta-carotene, which helps build vitamin A. It is not approved for commercial use anywhere in the world and has never been tested on humans.

The China trial, sponsored by Tufts, a private US research university, had received approval from the US National Health Institute, but not from the Chinese government. Authorities were alerted by Greenpeace, which was then told that ”no foreign genetically modified rice was imported into China for the trial”. Still, the incident could steer a new debate on genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Greenpeace has warned the governments in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam not to allow such risky trials. ”There is no evidence that this rice is safe,” says Jai Krishna, a campaigner with Greenpeace in India.

The debate over genetically-engineered crops erupted when they made their commercial debut in the mid-1990s. European environmentalists and consumer advocacy groups were the first to launch major protests that have since spread worldwide. Most genetically-engineered crops introduced represent minor variations on two themes: resistance to insect pests, and to herbicides used to control weed growth. And they are often marketed by multinational companies that produce and sell the very agricultural chemicals farmers spray on their fields.

But golden rice was touted as the first example of a GMO that could help save more than a million children who die every year weakened by vitamin-A deficiency, and another 350,000 who go blind in Asia and Africa.

Many countries, including India, have vitamin A supplementation programmes for children under five. Since many children rely on rice as a staple food, the genetic modification to make rice produce vitamin A was seen as a simple and cheaper alternative to vitamin supplements, green vegetables or animal products.

However, over a decade after it was created in 1999 by Ingo Potrykus of the Institute of Plant Sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and Peter Beyer of the University of Freiburg, golden rice is still in the labs, and scientists remain unable to address the safety and environmental concerns it raises.

In 2005, Syngenta produced a variety of golden rice called Golden Rice 2, which produces 23 times more carotenoids than the original. Syngenta donated the variety to institutions across China, India, Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Vietnam, for research.

While Syngenta holds some patents on golden rice, it has said that farmers who make $10,000 (about Rs 4.4 lakh) or less a year would be issued free licences. So, it may have little commercial interest in the project. ”But once a GMO is accepted, it will be easier for them to push for other varieties too,” argues Krishna.

Meanwhile, scientists accuse anti-GM ”well-fed folk” of disrupting technology that will benefit the poor. ”There is no merit in activists’ arguments against golden rice,” says S.K. Datta, chair professor at the University of Calcutta. ”They just want to say no to GMOs.”

It remains unclear when golden rice could be launched in India. ”It is difficult to say how much time it will take for a line to be identified and approved,” says D. Sudhakar, who is leading the research on golden rice at TNAU. Adds Rao: ”It may take us another two years just to take a product out of the lab, after which pre-clinical studies on animals would be conducted.”

India’s National Biotechnology Regulatory Bill 2008 — mooted by the DBT, and whose draft was published earlier this year — sets the stage for the establishment of the National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority (NBRA), an independent body that would provide single-window clearance for GM products and processes. ”This Bill will facilitate the approval process for GM products,” says Datta.

However, the Bill has been facing fierce opposition. Last month, a group of 50 farmer leaders and NGO representatives from 15 states wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, asking him to drop the Bill immediately.

Separately, Greenpeace said that ”the rationale for replacing the existing structure with the government’s single National Biotechnology Regulatory and an inter-ministerial group chaired by a reputed scientist is essentially to accelerate the process of GMO approvals”.

Naturally, Rao does not agree: ”The Bill does not give a clean chit to GMOs; it creates a very procedural and transparent system.” DBT has recently completed a process to gather feedback on both draft documents from various stakeholders at the Central and state levels. 

In an interview earlier this month with the UK’s Daily Telegraph, the Prince of Wales warned that the mass development of genetically modified crops could cause the world’s worst environmental disaster. His comments may spark a new global debate on GMOs.

But at a stage where Indian state officials have come to suggest eating rats to reduce dependence on rice, the timing may be right for GMO advocates, and genetically-modified crops to play a role in guaranteeing food security. But the question remains whether it would create more problems than it would solve.

Businessworld, India, Noemie Bisserbe (22.08.2008)

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