Mahyco Monsanto Biotech India (MMB) is in an advanced stage of launching its new hybrid cotton seed, round-up-ready (RUR), in the country. |
The recent verdict of the Supreme Court, allowing field trials for the existing hybrids, has enthused the company, responsible for the cotton revolution in the country, to launch the seed. The new hybrid is already in the markets in the US and Australia. |
RUR, the most advanced seed technology of the Bollgard family, protects plants from weeds. While Bollgard protects plants from insects, RUR gives complete protection to the cotton plants from both insects and weeds. |
"On a timely use of this technology, farmers are likely to witness at least 10 to 20 per cent more yield, which is otherwise lost due to weed attacks, provided all other climatic conditions are similar to Bollgard II," said Rajendra Ketkar, deputy managing director of MMB. |
The company has sought permission from the government to commercialise the technology in India. Ketkar refused to give any timeframe for the approval as the process requires clearance from the regulator at every step. |
The Supreme Court, recently, allowed the Centre to conduct approved field trials of genetically modified (GM) seeds with certain restrictions, aimed at repeating the cotton saga in other commodities such as mustard seeds, brinjal, rice, maize, corn and cauliflower. Field trials of these GM seeds are going on. Commenting on the verdict of the apex court, Ketkar said the decision was good for the existing seed technology, while bad for the new one. |
MMB is focusing on cotton in India, while other commodities such as soybean, cannolla and corn are in great demand in 23 countries, including the US and Australia. |
In 2006, a record use of the hybrid seed in the country led to almost tripling of the area under the Bt cotton from 1.3 million hectares to 3.8 million hectares. The rise in acreage was the highest year-on-year growth for any country in the world. |
Of the 6.3 million hectares of hybrid cotton in the country in 2006, representing 70 per cent of the total cotton acreage in the country, 60 per cent or 3.8 million hectares was under the Bt cotton "" a remarkably high proportion in a fairly short period of five years. |
The major states growing the Bt cotton in 2006, listed in the order of hectarage, are Maharashtra (1.840 million hectares representing almost half, 48 per cent of all the Bt cotton in India in 2006) followed by Andhra Pradesh (830,000 hectares or 22 per cent), Gujarat (470,000 hectares or 12 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (310,000 hectares or 8 per cent) and 215,000 hectares (6 per cent) in the northern zone, with the balance shared among Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and other states. |
Approximately 3 million cotton farmers in the country depend on the Bt seed for survival. |
According to a study by IMRB International, farmers, who planted Bollgard cotton in 2006, earned an additional Rs 7,039 crore in income, based on 8.77 million acreage penetration achieved during the crop season. |
This increase in acreage and number of farmers adopting Bollgard was a testament to the continuing success and acceptance of the technology in India, said Ketkar. |
"While introducing Bollgard for the first time in 2002, we had targeted a 50 per cent area under hybrid seeds. But looking at the economic benefits of farmers, it seems that the proportionate area under hybrid seeds and conventional seeds would be 17:5 over the next few years," added Ketkar. |