Farmers observe fast against gene-edited rice varieties

The members of Tamil Nadu Organic Farmers’ Federation on Friday observed a fast demanding the Union government to withdraw the introduction of gene-edited rice varieties. Protestors said, the Union government has introduced two varieties of Rice – “Pusa DST-1” & “Kamala”, which have been created through ‘gene editing’. The developers of these varieties have cut and deleted parts of the rice genome, with a claim that these varieties have increased the yield, and have tolerance to drought and salinity. Arachalur Selvam, State Coordinator of Tamil Nadu Organic Farmers’ Federation said such gene edited plants can easily contaminate other conventional varieties leading to loss of our rich heritage of rice diversity.