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GM Maize Field Trials 2025
July 21 , 2025
16 hrs 0 min
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- The field trials of two kinds of genetically modified (GM) maize are expected to begin in the ongoing kharif (summer) season at Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana.
- The Genetically Modified (GM) maize has herbicide tolerance (HT) and insect resistance (BT).
- Developed by Bayer, this maize variant is under biosafety trial phase BRL-I and BRL-II.
- The trials will study weed-control efficacy in herbicide-tolerant maize hybrids with the application of the Glyphosate-K salt, and the efficacy of insect-protected maize hybrids against targeted lepidopteran pests.
- In 2018, the Punjab government banned the sale of glyphosate, an herbicide used extensively in the State to control a wide variety of weeds in almost all crops.
- It was a day after the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) gave the nod for the trials, after receiving consent from the Punjab government.
- The GEAC functions in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and is the country’s top regulator for the GM crops sector.
- GEAC is the statutory committee framed under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
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