Bayer halts genetic engineering research for crops in India

16 November 2004 08:06  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (CNI)--Bayer Crop Science has pulled out of genetic engineering (GE) research for crops in India, opting to focus on conventional plant breeding research.

It told Greenpeace India, a branch of international advocacy group Greenpeace International, that its projects on GE crops have been “discontinued."

Aloke V. Pradhan, head of Corporate Communications at Bayer Crop Science India, said his company will instead “focus in the coming years on its conventional plant breeding research programme,” according to a press release by Greenpeace.

Bayer told Greenpeace India that research into engineered cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant, tomato and mustard seed had been halted. This follows two similar decisions by Bayer earlier this year in other parts of the world to pull out of GE crop research in the UK, and to stop the commercialisation of GE canola in Australia.

Divya Raghunandan, genetic engineering campaigner for Greenpeace India, said: "Around the world, the promises made by the genetic engineering industry have been unfulfilled, whether it is increasing crop yields or reducing pesticide use."

Bayer's move follows a pattern of retreat around the world in the biotechnology industry. Earlier this year, Monsanto globally abandoned research into genetically engineered wheat and shelved its work in Australia on genetically engineered canola one month prior to Bayer’s decision.

By: Siva Govindasamy
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