India, Oct. 30 -- Raising fresh questions about the performance of the two gene-edited rice varieties released by the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, a new analysis of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)'s trial data has revealed that there was no increase in yield and that the varieties were not maturing earlier when compared to the parental varieties, as claimed during their introduction.

On May 4, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Shivraj Singh Chouhan released two genome-edited rice varieties-DRR Rice 100 (Kamala) and Pusa DST Rice 1-with an aim to increase production, and drought and salinity tolerance.

Scientists at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research (ICAR-IIRR) in Hyderabad d...