The Committee members are visiting several parts in the State on Thursday to know impact of BG-III.

By | Published: 12:46 am

Hyderabad: Based on the State government complaint on supply of unapproved herbicide tolerant trait of cotton seed (BG-III), the Centre has constituted a Field Inspection and Scientific Evaluation Committee (FISEC) to inspect the spread of BG-III in the country.

The Committee members are visiting several parts in the State on Thursday to know impact of BG-III. The members were drawn from Ministry of Environment, Tata Institute of Nagpur, IGRI, Professor Jayashankar Agriculture University, Seed Development Agency and agronomists from various universities.

The committee is likely to conduct filed visits in Gadwal and Mancherial districts. The State Agriculture Department, after conducting field visits in various places of the State, arrived at the conclusion that intentionally or unintentionally, the unapproved BG-III was released into the fields by unidentified entities and agencies which was causing ecological damage. Later the State government wrote a letter to Centre to take appropriate action in this regard.

In the letter, the Agriculture Secretary C Partha Sarathi said, “The use of BG-III is spreading rapidly and contaminating other cotton hybrids, causing threat to biological resources besides causing health hazards with usage of glyphosate in cotton fields.”

The State government also wanted the Centre to prepare procedures and guidelines similar to BG-II (approved by GEAC) and the committee will also take opinion from the State Agriculture Department in this regard during their visit.