New Delhi, Nov 26 (IANS) The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) on Wednesday refuted allegations of bias in the evaluation of gene-edited rice varieties Pusa DST-1 and DRR Dhan 100 (Kamala).

The Coalition for a GM-Free India and others have alleged bias in the process of evaluation of Pusa DST-1 and DRR Dhan 100 (Kamala) in All India Coordinated Research Project on Rice (AICRPR) trials, 2023 and 2024.

“The analysis of data from all the locations in the country by ‘The Coalition for a GM-Free India’ is not only unscientific, but also misleading,” said ICAR, the apex body for managing research and education in agriculture, in a statement.

It is because the Coalition considered the performance of the rice varieties from "all across the country (which is not correct, and any breeding line of rice is not expected to perform well across the whole country),” ICAR added.

The apex body explained that every year rice breeders nominate over 1,200 breeding lines or rice varieties by blind-coding and sending them to the AICRPR trial sites/centres (about 100 trial sites across the country) for independent field evaluation and validation for a period of 2-3 years.

The system, in operation since 1965, and also followed by Pusa DST-1 and DRR Dhan 100 (Kamala), has contributed to the development and release of more than 1,750 rice varieties and hybrids.

“It is pertinent to note that more than 350 rice varieties presently grown across the country in an area of about 47 Mha have been tested, evaluated, and validated under AICRPR and later released through Central Varietal Release Committee (CVRC, now known as Central Sub-Committee on Crop Standards, Notification and Release of Varieties) and State Varietal Release Committees (SVRCs) and notified in the Gazette of India,” ICAR said.

DRR Dhan 100 (Kamala) and Pusa DST Rice 1, developed through gene editing, were tested at locations including the Indian states, which have been identified as the Target Performance Environments (TPEs) for the parents, viz., MTU1010 and Samba Mahsuri (i.e., South Indian States located in Zone VII), ICAR stated.

Further, it noted that both gene-edited rice varieties Pusa DST-1 and DRR Dhan 100 Kamala demonstrate superior yield and stress tolerance in target performance environments.

--IANS

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