ICAR, dismissing the allegations, asserted that they stemmed from an “anti-development agenda” aimed at undermining Indian scientists.
(File Photo | Express)
NEW DELHI: The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has rejected the allegations made by independent researchers who claimed that scientific evidence contradicts ICAR’s assertions about a substantial increase in rice production due to two gene-edited rice varieties introduced earlier this year.
Researchers under the banner of the ‘Coalition for a GM-Free India’ alleged that ICAR and the Ministry of Agriculture were manipulated to create false claims of success regarding genome-edited rice.
They cited data from the Annual Progress Reports (2023 and 2024) of ICAR’s All India Coordinated Research Project on Rice (AICRPR), which is publicly available. According to the researchers, most experimental results showed that the gene-edited varieties underperformed, and that ICAR used selective reporting techniques to exaggerate their relative performance.
At a press conference, the Coalition presented data from ICAR’s annual reports, alleging a pattern of “scientific manipulation,” and claimed that ICAR’s conclusions contradicted its own data.
In response, ICAR dismissed the allegations as “baseless,” asserting that they stemmed from an “anti-development agenda” aimed at undermining Indian scientists. The Council said it had provided detailed, point-by-point responses to every allegation, along with...
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