Scarecrows planted by Greenpeace activists are seen during a protest against genetically modified rice at a trial field of Bayer Crop Science company at Chinnakanjarla, about 45 kilometers from Hyderabad, India.
The 1440 sq meter Chinnakanjarla field is growing herbicide
tolerant rice, which requires farmers to buy Bayer's herbicide
Glufosinate, a chemical that has been banned and is to be phased
out in Europe due to its hazardous nature. Glufosinate (trade name
Basta in India and Liberty in the EU and USA) is classified in the
EU as toxic for reproduction, category 2 (R2) it is teratogenic
meaning it can also causes birth defects.
In 2004, Bayer had written to Greenpeace stating that they had
discontinued GM research in India. "The current field trial is a
clear violation of the statement made to us", said Jai krishna,
Greenpeace Sustainable Agriculture campaigner. "It is a scandal
that there is no data available on the rice's bio-safety even after
repeated requests by Greenpeace to the authorities under the 'Right
to Information' Act,'' he added.
"The union minister for environment, Mr. Jairam Ramesh, has gone
on record that his ministry would not encourage GM food crops (1).
We have pointed out the hazard and it is now his responsibility to
curb the herbicide and keep our fields safe" said Jai Krishna.
In 2007, India declared a ban on GM rice field trials in 3
states of the Basmati-rice export zone. This came after European
Union and other countries rejected imports of rice contaminated
with unauthorized GM strains of Bayer (2).
"India has the most to lose when untested GM rice such as the
one experimented by Bayer will lead to serious contamination of
other non GM rice, (3). To protect the Indian farmer our minister
must protect our fields from such GM trials and save the robust
export market"(4).
Volunteers installed a warning sign declaring the area
contaminated and a bio hazard zone and gave away information
brochures to the locals on the dangerous experiments the company is
conducting in the midst of their farm lands.
Contact information
Jai Krishna, Sustainable Agriculture Campaigner, Greenpeace India, Email: 
, Mobile:91-9845591992.
Stella Paul, Communications officer, Greenpeace India, Email: 
, Mobile: 91-9845068125.
Notes to Editor
1. Currently 41 food crops are being genetically modified in India, 11 of which have reached open air trial phase. Rice is the most researched crop and has the greatest number of (25) genetically modified versions. (Source: Ministry of Science & Technology)
2. An unauthorized GM rice variety of Bayer, LL601, was found to contaminate non GM rice stocks in the USA in 2007, as a result of which imported rice shipments worth more than 1 billion USD was rejected by the EU and by many countries the world over.
3. India is a centre of origin of rice and has more than 100 thousand varieties of rice of which 86,330 accessions have already been officially recorded. (Source: proceedings of the international rice commission meeting, Bangkok, 2002,http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y4751e/y4751e0b.htm)
4. India is the 2nd largest producer of rice and 2nd largest exporter of rice in the world.