A recent scientific finding from India have triggered global protests against the ‘golden rice’ - touted to be the most humanitarian step genetic science has taken so far. Indian farmers have also joined a global outcry against the introduction of genetically modified ‘golden rice’ in the rice pan of Asia, subsequent to the research finding.
A recent study by Indian Council of Agricultural Science discovered abnormalities in golden rice traits, and lower productivity in its traits, both qualitatively (lower Vitamin-A content) and quantitively (yield wise).
Two ICAR research bodies, one the Indian Agricultural Research Institute’s department of genetics and the other, National Plant Genomics Centre, were commissioned the research to develop a hybrid before the rice trait could be introduced in India - by cross breeding it with a local rice variety ‘Swarna’.
"Our researchers had introgressed the provitamin A trait from Golden Rice 2 into a popular Indian rice variety, Swarna. The resulting plants were dwarf with pale green leaves and drastically reduced panicle size, grain number and yield as compared to the recurrent parent, Swarna," said K.V.Prabhu, head, dept of genetics, IARI, Pusa, who headed the research.
The researchers identified several reasons for these detrimental effects: The new gene constructs interfered with the plant’s own gene for producing growth hormones.
"The additional gene constructs were not, as intended, active solely in the kernels, but also in the leaves. This led to a substantial reduction in the content of chlorophyll, which is essential for vital functions in the plants," Prabhu said on the reasoning for the failure of the newly developed genetic strain for rice.
The ICAR research paper, titled ‘Molecular and functional characterization of GR2-21 event based backcross derived lines of golden rice in the genetic background of a mega rice variety SWARNA’, was concluded just last month and published in major scientific journals globally.
So far, Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia have adopted the commercial cultivation of the GM rice variety, touted to be Vitamin-A enriched. This year, Philippines is looking at a bumper rice output (about 25 million tonnes), but its exports could also face sanctions from many countries after the study findings have come to fore, fears traders.
The three farm rights based organisations from India - Pesticide Action Network Asia Pacific, Asian Peasants Coalition and GRAIN- joined others in Quezon city Philippines for a global showdown against the most recent scientific invention in food grains.
The group joined other farmers organisations from the rice growing nations of Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand. Golden rice was introduced in many of these nations by the International Rice Research Institute, citing the need for the newly developed food grain for overcoming child blindness in this region, owing to Vitamin A deficiency.
The golden rice was researched in Spain and then jointly developed in the US by IRRI along with support of bio-tech majors including Monasanto, Syngenta and Bayer among others. In 2015, it received humanitarian patent of the year award in US after IRRI filed the patent for golden rice.
"It is highly likely that this inherent defect associated with the modification of the rice plant has disrupted the native structure of the rice plant making it perform less. This new information about the unintended effects of genetic modification was not detected in previous investigations.”said Cristino Paneria, National Coordinator of farm scientists group MASIPAG, who attended the pan Asian rice growers convention in Philippines on April 20.
