New Delhi

Syngenta, the Swiss-based agricultural biotechnology company, is set to withdraw from a collaborative deal that would have brought it commercial rights to a unique collection of Indian rice strains.

The ground-breaking deal would have given the company access to over 19,000 strains of local rice cultivars, painstakingly gathered by the agricultural scientist R. H. Richharia in the 1970s. In exchange, Syngenta would have provided support for collaborative research with the university that hold the seeds.

But plans to announce the agreement were postponed in October and, following harsh criticism from scientists, environmentalists and government officials, the company is now likely to abandon the plan, says Pawan Malik, president of Syngenta's seeds division in India.

Collaborations of this type are vital to the development of agricultural biotechnology in the developing world — but concerns about ownership have made them very difficult to pull off.

Richharia's collection is held by the Indira Gandhi Agricultural University (IGAU) in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. The university and Syngenta were accused of excessive secrecy after the Chhattisgarh Biodiversity Security Forum, a non-profit group, revealed the existence of the negotiations. The IGAU's vice-chancellor V. K. Patil subsequently confirmed that the university had held three rounds of meetings with Syngenta since the summer to discuss an agreement whereby the two parties would jointly develop hybrid rice varieties.

Patil said that Syngenta would provide an undisclosed amount of research funding to the university in exchange for access to the collection, and would also pay seven years' worth of royalties on any new varieties it sold as a result. Patil said he was going to make the deal public at the appropriate time.

But some scientists denounced the negotiations. “Richharia's collection is a national wealth and the IGAU has no right to treat it like its private property,” says E. A. Siddiq, chairman of the research advisory committee of the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research, the main farm-research agency, has asked the university to clarify how it negotiated with Syngenta without its knowledge.

A spokesman for Syngenta says that the negotiations took place “to explore the possibility of working together to develop new rice hybrids that meet specific farmers' needs in that part of the country”.

“We have 35 research collaborations in India, but this one has not worked out well,” adds Malik. He declined to identify any of the others, however.