Monsanto claims ryots profit from Bt cotton

After two years into commercialising Bt cotton in the country, Monsanto claims Indian farmers have been benefitted socio-economically by way of additional income.

In a day-long symposium on 'Agricultural biotech: Opportunities for farmers and consumers' here in Bangalore on Friday, Monsanto said that so far five states have successfully adopted cultivation of Bt cotton.

States like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat have already gained during the past two seasons and the area under cultivation has dramatically going up from 72,685 acres in 2002 to 2,13,099 acres in 2003 to 13,66,463 acres in 2004.

Despite an anti-Bt cotton movement in the country, about five lakh farmers are expected to endorse the crop in 2005 as against three lakh in 2004 and 75,000 in 2003, says Monsanto.

Mahalingappa Shankarikoppa, 75-year-old farmer from Adur village in Haveri district in Karnataka participating in the symposium as one of the first to undertake preliminary field trials with Bt cotton in the country in 1998, said he was impressed by the performance of the seed and from then on had been a regular user of Bt cotton.

"I am able to obtain about 50 per cent more yield than the conventional seeds and have not being using any bollworm controls," he said.

Acknowledging that the Bt cotton area is expanding rapidly in his area, Shankarikoppa said farmers are most interested in Bt cotton seeds as they have realised its benefits. "Therefore its area is increasing year by year. People who are opposing this technology are not real cotton growers," he added.

"After its approval in 2002, the country has seen two agricultural seasons and as per the Monsanto estimate, farmers have got 29 per cent additional income after withstanding bollworm attacks," said Dr T M Manjunath, former director, Monsanto Research Centre.

Answering question from a section of the crowd on bollworm attacks in Andhra Pradesh where farmers had to use pesticides extensively on their Bt cotton crop, Manjunath said there were several factors that led to the situation. The severe drought in the region led to other pests feasting on Bt cotton and the para-wilt (disease) led to crop failure in some areas.

Barring the episode in the country, the crop was successful. But nowhere was bollworm responsible for the failure of Bt cotton. The detractors of transgenic plant varieties are distorting the facts to oppose and make a point against Bt cotton, he added.

According to Alok Kumar, regulatory manager of Monsanto India, western and southern states have done well during the kharif season and a similar picture is expected to emerge from nothrern states of Punjab and Harayana.

Transgenic crops are grown in 81 million hectares in 17 countries, 63 countries are actively engaged in biotech research and 57 crop species are under various states of research or commercialisation.