Ramesh faces strong opposition to Bt brinjal

Ramesh was strongly opposed during the meeting held at the Bose Institute here.
The meeting was attended by stakeholders, including scientists, agriculture experts, farmer organisations, consumer groups and NGOs, who have been opposing the genetically modified brinjal.

Bt brinjal was cleared for commercial production by the country's bio-technology regulator last year.

Ramesh said he would hold public consultations in this month at Bhubaneshwar on January 16, Ahmedabad (19), Hyderabad (22), Bangalore (23), Nagpur (27) and Chandigarh (30).

Ramesh said that he would submit his report to the Centre by mid February on the public consultations.

Bt brinjal is promoted by Mahyco Monsanto biotech, a joint venture between Hyderabad-based Mahyco and US-based Monsanto, along with University of Agriculture Sciences, Dharawad, and Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Coimbatore.