Anti-GM activists question ‘advantages’ of ICAR’s 2 gene-edited rice varieties

The Coalition for a GM-Free India on Thursday alleged that the trial results for two genome-edited rice varieties — Pusa DST-1 and DRR Dhan 100 (Kamala) — have been rigged and hyped to manufacture false claims of success. Quoting Annual Reports (2023 and 2024) of ICAR’s All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on rice, it said, the ICAR’s conclusions directly contradict its own data.

Briefing media, the Coalition members accused the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Ministry of Agriculture of perpetrating a “scientific fraud” in the promotion of genome-edited rice varieties.

The two genome-edited rice varieties were announced by Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on May 4 as a global first achievement.

“As 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,” the coalition said in a statement.

No testing data

Pusa DST-1 (IET 32043) was claimed to outperform its non-GM parent MTU-1010 under saline and alkaline soils while DRR Dhan 100 ‘Kamala’ (IET 32072), derived from BPT 5204, was declared to yield 17 per cent higher and mature 20 days earlier, having higher nitrogen efficiency.

But, the Coalition said that according to AICRP report, Pusa DST-1 showed no testing data for claimed drought or salinity tolerance in 2023 due to “limited seed quantity.” In the same year’s trial, Pusa DST-1 also showed at-par or 4.8 per cent lower yield compared to parent MTU-1010, and underperformed in 12 of 20 sites.

In 2024, the same Pusa DST-1 variety showed no yield advantage in coastal or inland salinity trials, but only 1.6 per cent gain in alkaline soils. Yet, the summary table claims “30 per cent higher yield”, selectively drawing on results from just 8 locations in one zone, the Coalition alleged.

4% lower mean yield

For DRR Dhan 100, the Coalition claimed that it underperformed in 8 of 19 trial sites and performed significantly worse than its parent in two zones (eastern and central), though the yield gain was 4.3 per cent in the south zone in 2023 trials. Next year, data from several sites were excluded without explanation, and results from 6 sites were used to project a 17.21 per cent higher yield, the Coalition said.

Members of the Coalition said that no published field data supports the claim of 20 days earlier maturity, and the overall mean yield was 4 per cent lower than the parent variety BPT 5204. “Overall mean DFF for Kamala is 101 days and for BPT 5204 is 104 days,” the statement said.

Independent researcher Soumik Banerjee said: “If the technology being used is truly safe, precise and effective, there should be no hesitation in putting out all data and conducting proper testing, as is done for all GMOs.” Noted activist and anti-GM Coalition member Kavitha Kuruganti sought immediate withdrawal of all promotional claims about genome-edited rice varieties and an independent scientific review of ICAR’s trial data and methodology.

Published on October 30, 2025