Kenya has begun destroying the country's first genetically modified (GM) crops growing in open field trials, researchers confirmed Friday.

The east African nation halted the research and ordered the destruction after discovering that a technician had sprayed a restricted pesticide on maize modified to resist attack by insects called stem borers.

Top government officials monitoring the progress of the insect- resistant maize research revealed that the scientists, who admitted a mistake had occurred during the field trials, would be asked to restart their work afresh.

The maize was being grown by the Insect Resistance Maize for Africa (IRMA) project, a joint initiative of the Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute, the US-based Syngenta foundation, and the Mexico-based Center for Maize and Wheat Research.

In July, IRMA staff had notified the bio-safety committee that the maize had been sprayed with the insecticide Furadan.

Stem borers destroy up to 12 percent of maize growing in Kenya, amounting to 76 million dollars in lost harvests per year.

The IRMA project, which began six years ago, aims to develop both conventional and GM maize varieties to resist the pest.

The GM plants, which incorporate genetic material from a bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis, have already been grown under experimental conditions in IRMA's 12 million US dollars 'bio- safety' greenhouse.

When the first IRMA maize seeds were sown outside in May, Kenya became the first African country after South Africa to plant GM maize in open fields.

The IRMA researchers had hoped to release the maize to farmers by 2010.

Source: Xinhua