{"id":357262,"date":"2025-10-30T15:03:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T09:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=357262"},"modified":"2025-10-30T15:03:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T09:33:20","slug":"icars-genome-edited-rice-trials-under-fire-activists-allege-rigged-data-scientific-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/icars-genome-edited-rice-trials-under-fire-activists-allege-rigged-data-scientific-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"ICAR’s genome-edited rice trials under fire: activists allege ‘rigged data’, ‘scientific fraud’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cJumla culture enters science,\u201d says Coalition for a GM-Free India, accuses ICAR and Agriculture Ministry of “rigging results to promote an unsafe technology in the form of genome-edited rice varieties”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: Coalition for a GM-Free India activists address media<\/em><\/strong> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Coalition for a GM-Free India on Thursday accused India\u2019s premier agricultural research body Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Union Agriculture Ministry of \u201cfabricating\u201d trial data to promote what it called \u201cunsafe and underperforming\u201d genome-edited rice varieties. Citing ICAR\u2019s own All India Coordinated Research Project on Rice reports for 2023 and 2024, the Coalition alleged that results for two genome-edited rice lines \u2014 Pusa DST-1 and DRR Dhan 100 (Kamala) \u2014 were manipulated to manufacture success stories that the data itself does not support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs has become the habit with biotech lobbies in the country, seen earlier with Bt brinjal and GM mustard, science is yet again being compromised to push some genome-edited varieties as miracle seeds for India, while there is no testing or data to support the hype. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSuch compromised science brings a bad name to India\u2019s scientific establishment and causes serious erosion of the credibility of ICAR and other institutes,\u201d the Coalition said addressing media persons on Thursday <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is not just bad science \u2014 it\u2019s scientific fraud,\u201d its members claimed, adding : \u201cSuch compromised research not only misleads farmers and citizens but also drags down the credibility of India\u2019s public science institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The controversy stems from Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan\u2019s announcement in May declaring the two genome-edited rice varieties as \u201cglobal firsts.\u201d ICAR claimed that Pusa DST-1 was tolerant to saline soils and that Kamala yielded 17% more, matured 20 days earlier and used nitrogen efficiently \u2014 claims now being challenged as \u201cscientifically baseless\u201d. The Coalition is accusing the ICAR and the Agriculture Ministry of committing \u201cscientific fraud\u201d in the country\u2019s genome-edited rice programmes to promote \u201cunsafe and underperforming rice varieties\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Coalition\u2019s Kavitha Kuruganti, ICAR\u2019s own 2023 data, Pusa DST-1 showed no recorded testing for drought or salinity tolerance due to \u201climited seed quantity.\u201d Trial results actually showed a \u20134.8% yield compared to its parent, MTU-1010, and underperformance in 12 of 20 sites. In 2024, the line showed no yield advantage in salinity trials, and only a marginal 1.6% gain in alkaline soils. Yet, ICAR\u2019s report summary claimed a \u201c30% higher yield\u201d \u2014 cherry-picking eight locations out of one zone. The same report, she said,  even admitted that \u201cno yield superiority was observed under coastal salinity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likewise for DRR Dhan 100 \u2018Kamala\u2019, which ICAR projected as \u201cmiracle\u201d rice, the Coalition\u2019s analysis found it underperformed in eight of 19 sites in 2023 and had no consistent yield edge across zones. \u201cDoing bad science in agriculture, that too from the public sector, has a direct bearing on millions of farmers. \u201cThis becomes a matter of fundamental human rights. How can the jumla culture be allowed to enter the scientific arena?\u201d questioned Kavitha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Independent researcher Soumik Banerjee added, \u201cIf genome editing is truly precise and safe, there should be no hesitation in putting all data in the public domain and following full regulatory oversight, as done for GMOs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Coalition demanded an independent review of ICAR\u2019s trial data and methodology, an immediate withdrawal of promotional claims, and a moratorium on genome-edited crop releases until credible biosafety rules and oversight mechanisms are in place. \u201cThis is junk science dressed up as innovation,\u201d the Coalition said. \u201cHundreds of crores in public funds are being wasted on technologies that neither work nor serve farmers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cAs has become the habit with biotech lobbies, science is being compromised to push risky genome-edited crops as miracle seeds for India,\u201d the Coalition said. \u201cSuch compromised science erodes the credibility of ICAR and damages public trust in Indian research.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cJumla culture enters science,\u201d says Coalition for a GM-Free India, accuses ICAR and Agriculture Ministry of “rigging results to promote an unsafe technology in the form of genome-edited rice varieties” The Coalition for a GM-Free India on Thursday accused India\u2019s premier agricultural research body Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Union Agriculture Ministry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":357263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15293,14783],"tags":[18415,17605,17480,15605],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357262"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":357264,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357262\/revisions\/357264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/357263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}