GEAC Grants Approval to Conduct Confined Field Trials of Maize, Cotton, and Pigeon Pea

Bayer Crop Science received approvals to conduct separate confined field trials of herbicide tolerant maize NK603 and insect resistant maize MON89034 in several State Agricultural Universities and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) institutes across India. The approval was granted during the 155th Meeting of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) on June 9, 2025.

According to the minutes of the GEAC meeting, the confined field trials aim to:

• test the weed control efficacy NK603 with application of Glyphosate potassium salt; 
• study the efficacy of MON89034 hybrid against target lepidopteran pests
• observe the effect of the transgenic hybrids on beneficial insects and insect pests;
• compare the impact of transgenic corn events and their conventional counterpart hybrids in soil ecosystem, weediness, morphology and phenotypic characters;
• record the level of expression of the proteins coded by the transgenic genes in plant tissues at regular intervals; and
• differentiate the agronomic benefits of transgenic corn hybrids and their nontransgenic counterparts.

Approvals to conduct field trials were also granted to Rasi Seeds Pvt. Ltd. for transgenic cotton RIRC304 and RIRC-304×MON15985, and to ICAR-National Institute for Plant Biotechnology for four transgenic pigeon pea varieties with pod borer resistance.

Read more from the minutes of the 155th Meeting of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee.