[asia-apec 888] Food Rights Watch: News From India

[Anuradha Mittal]

THE TIMES OF INDIA, November 17, 1998, page 7.

Govt. will contest US patent on basmati

New Delhi: The Union government will soon seek cancellation of the patent
awarded to an American company on basmati rice attorney-general Soli J.
Sorabjee told the supreme court on Monday.

The best legal brains in the US and 15 to 20 scientists are involved in
the whole exercise to move for the cancellation of the US patent granted
on basmati rice. He refused to elaborate, saying, "I do not want to reveal
the strategy keeping in  mind the resources of the US".

Mr. Sorabjee also said the Bio-Diversity Bill, the Geographical Indicators
Bill and the Plant Variety and Farmer's Rights Protection Bill were being
framed to protect age-old Indian agricultural products from being patented
by outsiders.

The Plant Variety and Farmer's Rights Protection Bill is in the final
stage of preparation and would be placed before Parliament during the
winter session. Mr. Sorabjee told a bench of chief justice A.S. Anand,
justice V.N. Khare and justice M. Srinivasan.

Mr. Sorabjee said all the legislation drafted in this field had to keep in
mind the trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIP) agreement and
the government was doing its best to keep the nation's interest intact.

He said by the Bio-Diversity Act, the government was contemplating
prohibition of bio-piracy and through the Geographical Indicators Act,
patenting of agricultural products known by place names like Darjeeling
Tea would be prohibited from being patented by outsiders.

The court was hearing a public interest petition filed by Research
Foundation for Science, Technology and Economy seeking the court's
direction to the government to challenge the patenting of basmati rice in
the name of 'Texmati' by Rice Tech Corporation of the U.S. earlier this
year.

Mr. Sorabjee said various steps required for amendment of the Patents Act
were also under the active consideration of the Union government,
"Government is fully alive to the situation, its gravity and importance
and is taking steps to protect the interests of the nation", Mr. Sorabjee
assured the court.

Petitioner's counsel Indira Jaising said the Union government should enact
a law to prohibit and recognize any patent in genetic material in the
agricultural field.

The court disposed of the petition saying, "If there is any shortcoming in
the Acts that were being prepared, it can be brought to the notice of the
court".

*******************************************************************
THE INDIAN EXPRESS, November 16, 1998, page 1.

Centre opens up Indian fields to 'terminator gene' patent-holder

By Sharita Rai

Bangalore, Nov 15: The government of India has granted permission to
Monsanto - the US patent-holder of the controversial terminator gene - to
conduct 40 field trials across 5 Indian states. The trials involve the
company's genetically engineered hybrid cotton seed, claimed to be
resistant to the boll worm, a common pest known to represent 60 per cent
of all pest attacks against cotton.

The permission granted by Delhi pertains to Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra
Pradesh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. In Karnataka, these trials must
have been underway for the last three months. In the districts of Raichur,
Bellary and Dharwad, the trials are said to have a "93 per cent success"
allowing the company to anticipate that the BT [Bacillus thuringisis]
gene-resistant hybrid variety will hit the Indian market in time for the
Kharif season in the year 2000.

A Mumbai-based joint venture, Monsanto-Mahyco Biotech Pty Ltd [MMB], was
set up 6 months ago for manufacturing and marketing the hybrid seed.
Monsanto owns a 26 per cent stake in MMB.

IN THE DARK: Curiously, though agriculture is a state subject, the
Karnataka government seems unaware of the trials going on in the state.
Agriculture minister C. Byre Gowda admitted that he had been informed of
the on-going trials but was unaware of where they were being undertaken -
Karnataka or Maharashtra. (The Indian Express  correspondents, however,
found it quite easy to get this information).

Sources, who claimed these trials were being conducted in large private
holdings, were unwilling to identify the specific sites or the extent of
land over which these trials were taking place. But it is being done with
the permission of the individual farmer, they said.

FIELD TRIALS: Even more curious is the fact that the University of
Agricultural Sciences (UAS) had turned down the company's suggestion for
allowing field trials on its campus of hybrid seeds developed at the
Indian Institute of Science (IISc) before releasing them for further
trials on actual farm holdings. (In a controversial decision the IISc has
allowed lab facilities to Monsanto).

According to experts at the UAS, a team has visited the university
recently and met the Vice-Chancellor to discuss possible arrangements for
collaboration with them. The university was told that the seed development
at the IISc , which had given land to the company on a lease basis, would
be brought there for proper evaluation. Even as IISc officials are not
forthcoming on the nature of the agreement with Monsanto in this regard,
experts at UAS are concerned about the lack of transparency regarding the
whole venture. The discussions that Monsanto held with UAS officials
regarding the development of transgenic plants, however, fell through in
the light of the "terminator gene" controversy. Also, the UAS was not
interested in the development of pest-resistant hybrid cotton seed but
rather in developing a hybrid that would save the red gram from the
equally common pest - the pod borer. "While cotton was their priority
since it is grown extensively in the districts of Bijapur and Gulbarga"
admitted a UAS scientist.

Anuradha Mittal
Policy Director
Institute for Food and Development Policy - Food First
398 60th Street, Oakland, CA 94618
Phone: (510) 654-4400  Fax: (510) 654-4551
http://www.foodfirst.org