Promoting peace meeting in London 7000 Kandy residents sign petition to President Massive protest against municipality’s arbitrary decision to terminate YMCA lease Plant breeding turns to science

Promoting peace meeting in London
By Thilak S. Fernando in London

It is very encouraging to note how the Council of Churches in Britain and Ireland are taking a keen interest and playing a prominent role to diffuse an ‘unhealthy situation’ in Sri Lanka, thousands of miles away, when at their very door step IRA problems are not yet completely resolved to a permanent settlement!

Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland appears to be committed to God’s mission on earth and its members seem to believe that they, as Christians, cannot cut themselves away from the problems of the world and the Church has a moral duty to try and address any conflict situation anywhere in the world. Therefore, they would like to get involved and be a part of the proof of trying to promote peace at any cost. That is the life of the church, naturally!

It was with such good motives in mind that the Council of Churches in Britain and Ireland sent a delegation recently to Sri Lanka, consisting Rev. Norman Taggart (Methodist Church of Ireland), Rev. Dr. Andrew Wingate (Church of England) Fr. Pat Davis (Roman Catholic Church), Dr. Elizabeth Harris (Methodist Friends of Peace), at the invitation of the Christian Council in Sri Lanka to ‘ observe the current situation in Sri Lanka.

One of the delegates of the mission Rev. Fr. Pat Davies discharges his celestial duties attached to the St. Sebastian and St. Pancras Church at Hay Lane, Kingsbury, NW London with a Sri Lankan priest, Rev. Fr. Christopher De Silva in the same . Kingsbury Parish and the Sri Saddhatissa International Buddhist Centre at Kingsbury (which is affiliated to World Buddhist Foundation) have a common denominator in service with their activities on Interfaith Movement. Because of this affiliation Fr. Davies on his return from the Sri Lanka mission had contacted the chief incumbent of the SSIB, Ven. Galayaye Piyadassi, who had suggested that it would be most fitting if he (Fr. Davies) could give a reflection on his recent fact finding visit to Sri Lanka to the Sri Lankans in the locality. Fr. Pat Davies mutually agreed and the ‘promoting peace meeting’ took place at the SSIB centre on 27 June 1999, at 8.00 p.m.

Introducing Fr. Davies to the audience Ven. Piyadassi stressed that the meeting had been arranged only to hear Fr. Davies’s observations on his peace mission to Sri Lanka and also to give the Buddhist devotees attached to the SSIB an opportunity to listen to his observations and comments and/or to discuss any relevant points which needed to be discussed and wetted, if necessary, prior to an official report coming out. Ven. Piyadassia emphatically stressed that the occasion was ‘not a political platform to anybody’ and requested the audience not to consider the event as a political meeting.

Wimal de Silva, who is a senior devotee of the SSIB, introduced Fr. Davies as one of the delegates who had been to Sri Lanka recently as part of an organisation called the ‘Churches together in Britain and Ireland’ to observe the present situation in Sri Lanka and to find a solution for peace and reconciliation. Although it was not categorically mentioned everyone assumed that the function of the Church mission had been all about the on going war in Sri Lanka. Rev. Davies had been selected for this mission as a Christian with a past experience in conflict, peace and reconciliation background. He had been involved in international affairs and had been the assistant general secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ conference in Wales and England. At present he functions as a part-time moderator for the Church in Britain and Ireland. He had been particularly interested in peace and reconciliation issues in South Africa and Bosnia, therefore, his background for promoting peace and reconciliation since 1986, wherever there was aconflict, fitted very well with the Sri Lankan mission.

Fr. Davies briefly giving an outline of the Sri Lankan tour and displaying a Sri Lanka map (not the one which the LTTE has marked the areas as traditional home land) said they covered areas such as Kandy, Vauniya, Mannar, Madhu, Anuradhapura, Batticaloa, Puttlam, Kalpitiya, Negombo, Panadura, Bulathsinhala, Hiniduma, Weligama and spoke to a full spectrum of Sinhalese, Tamils, Buddhists and Christians as well as to the Catholic priests and the Buddhist clergy. The audience took a dim view from the very outset when Jaffna was not mentioned in their itinerary. However, the bottom line of the visit appeared to be ‘ to try and find whether there is a demand for a third party mediation to the problems in Sri Lanka’. Fr, Davies said they visited Sri Lanka with the blessings of the government of Sri Lanka. Admitting that he was not a ‘very good public speaker’ he set the audience to a question and answer session.

George Parapitiya opening the question time wanted to know what their agenda was. Fr. Davies said it was the result of a ‘Delegation for Peace’ who visited the UK in 1998 and the invitation to the Church had come this time from the Churches in Sri Lanka, National Christian Council and National Peace Council, he confirmed.

Interrupting the guest speaker Parapitiya said: " Obviously it was not a religious visit Father! You went to observe an existing problem and resolve whatever it was; you were asked to meet with some people and ask questions! May I ask you, what sort of questions did you ask from the Tamils, Sinhalese, Churches and the Buddhist monks"?

Fr. Davies said that they ‘did not have any pre-conceived agenda - in that sense’. It had been arranged by the Church solidarity movement in conjunction with the National Council for Churches in Sri Lanka. Dr. Davies went further stressing how the Church did whatever it can to help facilitate the peace process".

Parapitiya still unconvinced of the answer he received pursued further: " Fr. Davies I’m sorry, but I am still not clear whether your delegation was on a religious basis or something to do with any other matter" !

Fr. Davis could not help laughing at this moment

Parapitiya then becoming somewhat impatient to get a straight reply to a direct question said that the Church delegation from the UK did not go to resolve any political or economic problems in Sri Lanka, and the most obvious thing to assume was that they went to find out the basic truth behind the present conflict between the government and the terrorists in Sri Lanka. Referring to the traditional map of Sri Lanka displayed by Fr. Davies Parapitiya said that the the Church delegation had visited were mostly the majority of Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslim areas where everyone lived peacefully. South had no problem whatsoever he said and wanted to know how strange it was then that neither Fr. Davies nor his other delegates did not even attempt to visit the North? Looking at the destinations which Fr. Davies mentioned and the type of people they had spoken to, Parapitiya said it appeared that the delegation had been ‘taken for a ride’. Parpitiya wanted to know what problems the delegation saw in those areas, how they managed to communicate in Sinhala and/or Tamil with the ordinary folk without aTamil or Sinhala knowledge, and whether they could trust what the interpreters translated into English as the Gospal truth?

Fr. Davies tried to explain the role of the church. He said, being in the Church one could not cut oneself off from the problems of the world, and the Church had a duty to try and address any situation - in this scenario the Sri Lankan problems - to see what the Church could do about it. Drawing a reference to the involvement of the Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka, Fr. Davies pointed out that it was the very reason why the Buddhist monks too were involved in the same sort of problems - trying to promote peace.

Dr. Susantha Goonatilake spoke next. He said he had a feeling by reading the Sri Lankan newspapers that Fr. Davies’ belief that there was a demand for a third party mediation was completely at variance with the public opinion in Sri Lanka which went against international mediation. Digging further into the subject Goonatilake wanted to know the Church’s involvement in the Sri Lanka conflict. Every year, he said, for the past fifteen years, in Geneva there had been a resolution passed at the NGO Section of the Human Rights Commission which endorsed the false terrorist map of Sri Lanka of the so called traditional homeland for Tamils. The danger of passing this resolution was that young Tamil kids believing in this ‘ traditional homeland’ fiction were taken, brain washed partly by the LTTE as well as partly by the Church and sent as cannon fodder. "My feeling is that, part of the problem lies in this map that ‘you’ have made. Your representative of the cloth Bishop Kenneth Fernando made a very interesting statement few years ago that Prabbhakaran was a great humanist. Another man of the cloth was Fr. Emmanuel who has declared at nauseum that the Tigers are saviours"! Goonatilake continued.

At this juncture, Fr. Davies said, "I understand it is this man (referring to Fr. Emmanuel) who has been talking in general about Jaffna!" Goonatilake very politely explained to Fr. Davies that he (Goonatilake) had a very large data base in his computer and that he could e-mail all the relevant details to Fr. Davies at any time.

Fr. Davies trying to brush the question aside said that Emmanual had a particular opinion on things, to which Goonatilake replied, " No Sir, he says he is a Tamil first, and then a Catholic. But he is under the directorders of the Pope."

Fr. Davies then tried to explain that he went to Sri Lanka as a tourist, but Goonatilake told him that his visit was far from that of an ordinary tourist but as an opinion maker within this country of Christian people. He went on to say that Kenneth Fernando belonged to the National Christian Council, which had a spin off in the form of the National Peace Council which latter had been funded by the International Alert. He then described a whole series of related unsavoury events. Goonatilake told Fr. Davies that he had written extensively to Sri Lankan newspapers on the subject and he (Fr. Davis) could go to International Alert and speak to the present people there, who would give all the relevant information on how this situation occurred.

In a somewhat confused state Fr. Davies suddenly asked : " What is this map you mentioned about Tamil home land ? and I am not aware of this map!" Goonetillake in his reply said, "Well, I think Sir, if you do not know what this map is, first of all you should go to one who has visited Sri Lanka properly and find out what this map is. If you have no knowledge of this map then it’s not worth talking at all, as to how you are going to solve our problem? Any one, for that matter, who is interested in solving the Sri Lanka problem should know what this map is, and if you do not know, then I am sorry."

Soon George Parapitiya and Wimal Ediriweera gave few maps of Sri Lanka with the claimed Tamil land marked in red to Fr. Davies for his examination.

Douglas Wickremaratne wanted to place on record that in certain quarters of the Sri Lankan community always there was an element of suspicion when the Church assumed ‘an Almighty role ‘ to intervene in different countries to solve worldly problems, to which Fr. Davis said the Church was only trying to do their best to help in whatever form they could.

Wickremaratne went on : "We know how Christians are killing Christians in Northern Ireland but neither we, Buddhists nor our Buddhist clergy are asked to find a solution to that problem"! Fr. Davies interrupted:, "We were asked to go to Sri Lanka".

Wickremaratne said that the Church in Sri Lanka was responsible for a greater part of the present problem. He pointed out how Sri Lanka was under Colonial rule for 450 years and, during that time and right the way up to now, even after 51 years of Independence of the country, the role Church had been playing was to push down the Sinhala Buddhists. He said " You were speaking of solutions to the problem but not once did you mention that the solution could be the defeat of terrorism existent in Sri Lanka today! That is the role historically played by the Church in Sri Lanka".

He went on further stating that the Church had always been associated with the terrorist movement in Sri Lanka and said it was a pity that the Sinhalese people had been branded as ‘Sinhala Buddhist chauvinists’ ! - A phrase coined by the Christians in the West. " We have seen the beastly acts of the Serbs in Serbia and Catholics massacring the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda, but I have never seen in any English newspaper mentioning the word ‘Serbian Christian chauvinists’ or "Rwandan Catholics! These are the countries where Christians and Catholics massacred millions of people, but was religion ever dragged into it or blamed"? Wickremaratne lamented.

In reply to a statement made by Fr. Davies on South Africa, with regard to a possible third party mediation, Wickremaratne said that Sri Lankan crisis had no relevance or bearing to South Africa. Fr. Davies was reminded that he (Fr. Davis) went to convert the Black people of South Africa to Christianity but they were not allowed even to pray in the same church hall with the whites ! " If you don’t want the black man in your church who the hell wants him in heaven, and for what ? " asked Wickrematne, to which the whole audience, including Fr. Davis started laughing.

When the laughter was drowned Fr. Davies referring to South Africa said it had been a long time ago. Wickrematatne viewing the question at a different angle asked Fr. Davies whether he (Fr. Davis) knew what had been proposed as a Devolution Package to the Tamil people in Sri Lanka and that the EDEP had accepted it? Still continuing on the same topic Wickremaratne wanted to know whether the Church in England would propose a similar package to Scotland or England where it could be divided to fifteen regions and parts and given to Asians, Blacks, Cypriots or any other ethnic minority ! "When it comes to Sri Lankan affairs Sir, amazingly enough though, the Church seems to support it along with these so -called peace mongers . But when we talk against the division of our own country we are branded as warmongers or Buddhist chauvinists! This is where the problem lies Sir. It is, therefore, immensely vital to identify whether we have a terrorist problem with a certain section of the Tamils who are claiming a homeland in our country".

Continued tomorrow

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7000 Kandy residents sign petition to President
Massive protest against municipality’s arbitrary decision to terminate YMCA lease
By Carl Muller

Labels! That’s the cause of a lot of the froth and fury this country is plagued with. We are a truly multicultural, multiracial, multifaith society, and yet, we simply have to label ourselves. We wish to keep reminding our neighbours that we are this, that or the other. We insist on the labels. There must be a Moors cultural Society and a Dutch Burgher Union and a Hindu Cultural Hall and a Sinhala Veera Vidhanaya and a Christian Workers Association. We flaunt our so-called uniqueness of race, faith calling, all the top-dressing we consider so all-fired important to our self-esteem, and then begin to think we are the cat’s whiskers.

Politically, of course, it is expedient to label ourselves "united." We claim to stand for the "people" and say that this front is United and then we resort to the usual divisive tactics because to divide, as we have so well learnt, is to stay on top.

On the religious front, this labelling is a sad thing indeed. Where in heaven does anyone give a damn if one is Buddhist, Hindu, Christian or Islamic? Lebniz coined the phrase Philosophia Perennis - the Perennial Philosophy that recognises, as Huxley put it, "a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds; the ethic that places man’s final end in the knowledge of the immanent and transcendental Ground of all being...immemorial and universal."

This is the sort of philosophy that gives to our minds that state of detachment, charity and humility. Standing out, we have the primary concern of such great teachers as the Buddha who wished to put out in men’s hearts the fires of greed, resentment and infatuation. Yet, we are torn apart as a people because we refuse to accept that we are one. What is the use in calling this one country, one nation, one people, if there is this blind arrogance and this constant exploding against each other? Plotinus, one recalls, declared that "each being contains in itself the whole intelligible world." Also, the Viveka Chudamani - that marvellous teaching of Shankara, reminds us that true human liberation from the bonds of ignorance, passion and self-interested action cannot be achieved by mere learning or the practice of religious ceremonies.

Reality
So will labelling ourselves bring on this disease. By simply saying "Panadol" will the fever subside? Does labelling oneself "Christian" make one a true Christian? Shankara puts it: "It is ignorance that causes us to identify ourselves with the body, the ego, the senses. . ,when a man follows the way of the flesh, or the way of tradition; when he believes in religious rites and the letter of the Scriptures as though they were intrinsically sacred, no knowledge of Reality can rise in him."

So this is no way to write a news story. . .but I have spread myself because I earnestly feel that we are all under this curse of our own seeking. We run about, as individuals or in groups, trying to justify our views, and we simply cannot think of ourselves as One. And yet, the poet Kabir (who is honoured by both Muslim and Hindu) said, "Behold but One in all things; it is the second that leads you astray."

Let me now finally come to the business in hand. In Kandy, the YMCA has been in possession of a premises - the Lake View YMCA - at No. 4, Sangaraja Mawatha, for nearly 125 years. (I may well ask, even as I write, why the label? As others followed, we have YMBA, YMMA, YMHA etc.) Anyway, to proceed, the land was given to the YMCA on lease and the buildings on it constructed with donations from many Kandy citizens. When the lease expired two years ago, the YMCA requested the Kandy Municipality for extension, and this was given. The decision to extend the lease was taken at a meeting of the KMC on December 22, 1997.

I am the first to own that much of Kandy city, from any point radiating from the Maligawa and environs, is temple land or formerly temple land. But this is not the real issue at stake. Even Paiva’s, Kandy, for that matter, stands on "temple land." The real issue is the "fanatic fringe’ - this revolting and quite unworthy way certain bodies keep driving wedges, making of peaceful community living a nightmare of sorts. What they do not see is that they are in truth striking at the heart of the nation and destroying unity.

Spoke with father Stephen of the YMCA. He is sad. And he agreed, we can do without labels. "Community living is the best way to live in Sri Lanka," he said, "with respect and love for all." Yet, there are these elements who imagine they have the right to parade their "superiority". What do we need to be as a people? To stick on our labels and know nothing of what the truth of such labels are?

Anyway, for reasons best known to itself, the Kandy Municipal Council did not take the necessary action to finalise the terms of the lease extension which it approved on December 22, 1997. The YMCA continued to pay rental but the necessary paper-work wasn’t done. It is now the feeling of thousands of outraged citizens that this work was deliberately stalled biding a request for the property from an organisation styling itself "Jayagrahanaya Sri Lanka" or the Success Group. When I called at the Success office in Trincomalee Street, I was told to please go away and mind my own business. My God, when are people ever going to sit together and talk in this country? Father Stephen’s face fell. "Success Group has declared itself an anti-Christian association in Kandy," he said, "and is an organisation that is committed to anti-Christian activities."

Creed
I am not fixing on this. When I see the stuff trotted out in the name of this creed or that I can be pretty anti this or that myself. But the YMCA received a rabbit punch. At a meeting held on June 18 this year, the KMC took an arbitrary decision to terminate the lease of the YMCA and give the property to Jayagrahanaya Sri Lanka!

"This," said Father Stephen, "is a deliberate attempt by the KMC to infringe on the fundamental rights of the YMCA."

The KMC thinks otherwise. "The property is no longer on lease to the YMCA. We can now give it to any other organisation."

Rightly so, but the decision to extend the lease was approved. Why wasn’t the paper-work done; why was everything kept in a Municipal limbo; and how long ago was it decided to give the property to another? Explanations, as usual, were as clear as mud. Naturally, Success applied, and was successful... again, naturally. Things have got pretty dicey now and the mood in Kandy is nothing to write home about. The National Christian Council has taken up cudgels and the International Qrganisation of YMCA’s, with representation in over 140 countries is concerned. Already, I learn, the fate of the Kandy YMCA is being taken up in many countries.

Sports-oriented
While the axes are being ground, I found the Lake View premises very much a sports-oriented place with the accent on boxing, wrestling, table tennis, body-building and weightlifting. The weightlifting gym is national and all poolists who represent the country train here. The ring has also produced such national boxers as S. Nugegoda and Walisundera. Many members from the Central Province come for wrestling and two of our top-ranking table tennis stars, Thilina Piyadasa and Deepika Rodrigo were produced here.

In this, the Lake View YMCA is doing a tremendous job keeping youth off the streets end out of trouble. There is carrom, chess and draughts for many who come in every day. Also, there is a pre-school for poor children and a vocational training centre where school drop-outs and the young men and women of the poorest families train in sewing, leather working, household electrical wiring, etc. The centre recruits batches of 50 for such training every six months. Significantly too, over 40 street children, all homeless and destitute, are brought in six days a week, where they are fed, taught and made to raise tbeir heads with some confidence. Many of these children have been successfully placed in Kandy schools and are looked after by the YWCA.

Kandyan Dance classes are also held every Saturday. Children are trained for their O/L and A/L exams as well, since Kandyan Dancing is a subject. The point I’d like to make here is that YMCA, in all of its activities, cuts across all religious and ethnic differences. Its aim is to serve all young people irrespective of their race, religion or caste. This is why so many students from Buddhist schools also benefit from its activities and especially the Kandyan Dance classes.

All this froth and fury about "Christian"! So tell me - who are our largest aid donors? God! How petty and perverse can we get. While we puff like pouter pigeons, will be ban cricket as a "Christian" game and tell the "Christian" Airbus to go fly a kite and yank out our "Christian" telephones and stay suspended in the air because we cannot condone the "Christian " law of g gravity?

This country is racing into a new millennium. We need the world around us - all worlds -to flex our muscles, spread our limbs, become part of the global family. Success is what we look to, and yes. Success Sri Lanka is a wonderful label. It is the one label we can all identify with, but it has to embrace all - for it was W.S. Senior who gave us the true picture of such success:

But most shall he sing of Lanka
In the brave new days to come,
When the races all have blended
And the voice of strife is dumb;
When we leap to a single bugle,
March to a single drum.

March to a mighty purpose,
One man from shore to shore,
The stranger become a brother,
The task of the tutor o’er
When the ruined city rises,
And the Palace gleams once more

Let sanity prevail. Over 7000 citizens of Kandy, of all religions and of every calling, have addressed a petition to the president. The three-page petition reminds: "As you are aware, is an International organisation and unless this matter is settled in a just manner, it could be taken up in other international for a which would cause a lot of embarrassment for Sri Lanka."

The petition charges the KMC with a deliberate act of injustice and adds: "We are aware that Your Excelency has made every attempt to be just and fair to all ethnic and religious communities in Sri Lanka, and if acts of this nature were to be encouraged, it would not be possible to implement the policies of any Government which reaches towards religious and ethnic harmony."

Seems that rather than reach, we are still groping blindly, and the Kandy Municipal Council is as blinkered as ever!

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Plant breeding turns to science
by Dr. V. Arulnandhy
Faculty of Agriculture
Eastern University, Chenkalady

Continued from yesterday

Today the breeder is invariably aimed to find out

- how many genes are involved in a particular triat

- Where exactly these genes are on the chromosome

- What their precise action is on the whole plant.

Some examples of possible interactions are as follows.

Oil crop like sunflowers and soyabeans, protein is negatively correlated with oil. Both cannot be increased simultaneously. In legume, number of seeds per pod and seed mass are strongly genotype - dependent and not appreciably influenced by treatment. It has been often quoted that need to improve protein quality of legume seed is usually more apparent than real.

Plant like cassava cannot be modified to produce roots with high protein content by incorporating gene for a seed protein from some other species. Many different aspects of transport physiology and metabolism would require alteration in order to engineer a cassava plant with high protein roots. Such a breeding objective is fanciful and unlikely to be attained in the near future.

Disease and Pest Resistance

The assessment of genetic resources available from major collections is a normal prerequisite for plant breeding programme aimed at improving disease and pest resistance. The chief advantage of disease or pest resistance in crop plants is the elimination of the need, either real or apparent to apply pesticides whether it is insecticides, miticides, nematodes, fungicides, bactericides etc.

Lack of specificity for target organism means beneficial organisms are also killed. Selection pressure on target organism means few resistant survivors generate resistant progeny. Breeding for nematicide resistance is clearly desirable but conventional breeding methods have not proved adequate.

Conflicting priorities

Natural resistance to aphids is often conferred by glandular hairs (trichomes) present on the epidermis. The secretion of trichomes contain plant products that act as toxin.

Cultivated plants whose wild relatives, possess trichomes may lack these in sufficient density to protect the plant ea. tomato. Introduction of genes for producing trichomes on stems and leaves would not have an adverse effect on the fruit surface-smooth skinned tomato remain that way. Such breeding objective applied to sunflower would not be accepted because stems are used for animal feeds.

If we imagine, when the new cultivars are developed and a handful in number are put in use in other words use for production. It is a situation of replacing numerous traditional cultivars, most of them are land races in co-existence with varieties of parasitic population. By doing this we are narrowing down the genetic diversity but also introduce changes in the immediate microclimate of the plants affecting drastically the existing dyanamic equilibrium. The net result in upsurgence of pest population and these causing the outbreak of pest.

A very striking example is epidemic of Brown Plant Hopper (BPH). This pest was in association with the traditional cultivars but had caused no outbreaks of significant importance, irrespective of the susceptibility of the rice crop.

It is necessary that plant breeding philosophy must be oriented to introduce genetic diversity, adaptability and stability to the cultivars being developed so that they could thrive well across diverse environmental conditions.

Innovative Techniques
The conventional plant breeding techniques are more widely adopted in developed and developing countries. In these techniques, plant breeders handle very carefully. These conventional procedures are identified as main stream breeding procedures. The innovative techniques, by themselves are inadequate or incomplete and cannot stand alone. They may be utilized as breeders tool in strengthening breeding projects.

Some of the innovative technologies that may be introduced are

1. Haploid breeding

2. Somatic hybridization

3. Tissue culture

4. Gene transfer (Genetic engineering).

Genetic Engineering

The term genetic engineering has been widely applied to the alteration of genome by biochemical methods possibly involving incorporation of DNAs from prokaryotes or from any eukaryotes including yeasts fungi etc. and genetically engineered plants are referred as transgenic plants. It is able to mix DNAs from species that have been separated in evaluation for a long time. An example is wheat contains a segment of rye chromosome, introduced because it carries gene conferring resistance to some disease.

Twenty year ago, some people believed and still believe ripening of fruits to be nongenetic biochemical reaction. Today 60 or more genes are thought to be involved, of which half has been identified and cloned.

So far as plant breeding is concerned, I have no doubt that the application of recombinant DNA techniques could be beneficial if directed towards appropriate breeding objectives but in practice, it may be misguiding. The most frequent application of Genetic engineering to plants is the development of herbicide resistance.

Herbicides are chemical compounds that kill plants. Left over herbicides applied to weeds before a crop is planted can persist in the soil and decrease yield. Crops engineered to be resistant to one or more herbicide applications suffer no loss of yield. If genetically engineered crop plants are known to have increased herbicide resistance, the temptation for farmers to over treat with herbicide during pre-sowing applications will be very strong.

There is no guarantee that genes conferring herbicide will remain confined to the crop species in which they are placed. Almost every field crop has at least one related species. Interbreeding between crop plants and closely related weeds happens routinely. An example is carrot.

White carrot is a wild variety in Europe. Yellow carrot is a cultivated type. Gene transfer can occur in both directions. Hence, the modifications for herbecide resistance introduced to carrot cultivars could be readily transmitted to weedy wild carrot. Herbicide resistance weeds are an undesirable consequence of any programme aimed at improving crop plants.

Infrastructure of research in the third world does not permit the application of all known innovative technique to supplement main stream of plant breeding. Some technique need technical expertise and expensive laboratory equipments that no third world country like ours could afford . But, these techniques have the potential to change the course of evolution of the world oldest profession, plant breeding.

"PLANT BREEDING IS A NUMBER GAME
IT PRODUCES GOOD RESULTS IF
PLAYED CORRECTLY"

Concluded

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