Coimbatore: Farmers affiliated to the Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam have requested collector K Rajamani not to allow field trials of the two indigenous transgenic varieties of brinjal hybrids, Janak and BSS-793, in the state.
In a petition submitted to the collector, the farmers said the new varieties will kill the traditional varieties of the vegetable and make them depend on multinational corporations for seeds.
Tamil Nadu is one of the eight states chosen for conducting field trials of the brinjal varieties before they are commercially released. However, the genetic engineering appraisal committee had asked for the trial to begin only after getting no-objection certificate from the states.
“Field trials should not be allowed here. The state government should not give the NOC,” said senior member of the association V S Kalisamy.
Brinjal is cultivated in Thondamuthur, Annur and S S Kulam in Coimbatore, Kalisamy said. “If field trials begin and the varieties becomes commercially available, farmers will be tempted to adopt them because of bigger vegetables and higher yield. It will also force them depend on MNCs for seeds, like in the US,” he said.
The genetically-modified varieties will kill traditional varieties of brinjal which can even be cultivated organically, the petition said. “there are several varieties like mullu kathiri cultivated in and around Chennai, vella kathiri in and around Bhavani area and Salem, poona vai kathiri in the south side of the state and vari kathiri and neela kathiri in Kanyakumari. Farmers bred them because they found them suitable to their local soil and climatic conditions. They have certain unique nutritional properties. Farmers here use seeds from the current harvest for next sowing and don’t have to buy them from anyone. It is self-sustaining. All these will become forgotten,” it said.
“Brinjal is not a critical vegetable that need so much research. The researchers should instead spend their money and time to develop BT varieties of palm tree, of which every part is useful, or jatropha, whose seeds are used to produce biodiesel,” added the petition.