Funding to stop toads stopped

Cane toads are considered a menace in Australia as there are no natural predators to cane toads. Now the Australian government has stopped funding for research on a genetically engineered virus to control toads for fear it could also wipe out native frogs. The Federal Environment Department withdrew funding as it thought the final product could have faced problems in getting approval for release. People also raised concerns that the results from these engineered organisms might be unpredictable. Some researchers even said that cane toads were not causing the ecological catastrophe for which they had long been blamed. Cane toads were introduced into Australia from South America for control of a sugarcane pest. 

Mahyco violates GM field trial guidelines

Gene Campaign has claimed that leading seed company Mahyco has violated guidelines in conducting field trials of GM rice in Jharkhand. Gene Campaign in a statement said the Bt rice was planted on March 29 in one acre of land, owned by a small farmer of Saparong village in Ranchi district, and was harvested on August 11. That the land, where Mahyco conducted the trial, was not isolated from other agricultural land. Besides that, Mahyco neither informed the state government, nor local panchayat, nor the district administration about the Bt rice trial. Gene Campaign also said that it would soon move the Supreme Court for contempt of court proceedings against Mahyco as the company failed to follow the guidelines set by the apex court.

Bt cotton protects neighbours too, claims study

A study in northern China indicates that Bt cotton not only reduces pest populations among those crops, but also reduces pests among other nearby crops that have not been modified with Bt. These findings were reported in the latest issue of the journal Science. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing analyzed data from 1997 to 2007 about the cultivation of Bt cotton in six provinces in northern China, covering 38 million hectares of farmland sown by 10 million resource-poor farmers.

The results show that the population of the cotton bollworm was dramatically reduced with the introduction of Bt cotton, especially during the period from 2002 to 2006. They confirmed that Bt cotton was responsible for the long-term suppression of the pests in the cotton and a host of other un-modified crops after 10 years. The authors say that Bt technology gives China a new tool for pest control, and that all farmers in a Bt cotton-planting region will experience the benefits. 

Brazil approves new GM Corn Seeds

Brazil's National Biosafety Commission has given the green signal to two new varieties of GM corn seeds. The Commission approved Monsanto's Roundup Ready 2 and Syngenta's GA21, both of which are resistant to glyphosate, a non-selective herbicide which is widely used in corn growing areas. These two new varieties of GM corn join three other types of GM corn seeds that were approved in 2007 by the Commission from Syngenta, Monsanto and Bayer. The analyst said corn farmers are keen to use transgenic seeds, which are resistant to pests and insects, but the process will start slowly because the seeds are still not widely available.

EU fails to approve GM soybean

According to media reports European Union biotech experts clashed recently on whether to authorize imports of a GM soybean made by Monsanto, leaving the final decision to EU farm ministers. The GM soybean-- MON 89788-- is designed to resist glyphosate Roundup Ready herbicides and also produce increased yields for farmers. Monsanto's application for EU approval is for use in food and feed, not for cultivation in Europe's fields. Europe's livestock and feed manufacturing industries have a keen interest in the EU authorizing more soybean imports since they depend heavily on soy products as a source of protein-rich and high-quality feed. Now the application will be sent to ministers for discussion.