The Tamil Nadu government has decided not to encourage Bacillus thuringiensis (BT) cotton farming in the state. The Centre’s Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has been encouraging BT cotton farming across the country in order to increase the production and remuneration to the farmers. At present, 72 per cent of cotton cultivation of BT variety in the state.
In a statement, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa said that in 2002, the Union government had approved the cultivation of BT cotton. It was felt that BT cotton farming would bring more profit for the farmers, so the state government had bought seeds from the private parties and distributed to the farmers.
In the interim budget, which was presented at the beginning of this month, the state government has said it will continue to encourage BT cotton farming. However the members of the Assembly felt that the BT cotton farming should not be encouraged since it is a genetically modified crop and farmers have also said that it was not giving any promising return.
"Taking these views, this government has decided not to encourage BT cotton farming in the state," said the chief minister.
While welcoming the government’s decision, J Thulasidharan, chairman, Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) said the state government should now ask the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University to do research on a seed that can replace BT cotton, to help the farmers both in remuneration and increase the cultivation.
According to industry sources, in 2010-11 total cotton cultivation area in Tamil Nadu was 121,000 hectares, of which 87,500 hectares under BT cotton farming, which is 72 per cent of the cultivation. While in Gurajat, Maharastra and other parts, it ranges between 80 and 90 per cent.
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On the other side, representatives from the mills have felt it is little surprising that Tamil Nadu has taken this stand. They said the worldwide BT farming was accepted and millions of dollars was spent on it. The system was giving a boost to the cotton cultivation and 90 per cent of cotton produced in the country is under BT, which doubled the cotton cultivation in the country.
BT cotton, developed for control of bollworms, continued to be the only agri-biotech product approved by the Centre since March 2002.
K Koodalingam, chief cotton research and development officer, SIMA-CDRI, said the return for the farmers was going down. He noted the yield was 554 kg in 2007-08 and dropped to 486 kg in 2009-10. "This figure shows farmers are not getting remuneration".
He added that the seeds of BT cotton had also increased to Rs 900-1000 per packet (450 grams) from Rs 750, which was three to four months before. According to Koodalingam, a farmer has to invest around Rs 5,000 for seeds alone in a hectare, which can produce 2.5 tonnes of cotton.
The number of farmers adopting this also increased from 20,000 in 2002 to over six million in 2010 in the country. A report quoting International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) is a not-for-profit international organisation that shares the benefits of crop biotechnology to various stakeholders, particularly resource-poor farmers in developing countries.
Bt cotton was grown in an area of 9.4 million hectare (ha) in 2010 as compared to 8.4 million ha in the year-ago period, the report added.