The Centre is considering writing off trait value charged from farmers for Bollgard-II variety of Bt cotton to ensure the seeds are available to farmers at affordable prices, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said in Parliament on Tuesday.
Since 2015, the government has been fixing a maximum sale price for Bt cotton every year considering the seed value, recurring royalty (trait value), trade margins and others.
The price of Bollgard-II (BG-II) cotton seed in 2019 was fixed at Rs 730 per packet including Rs 20 as trait value.
Asked if the government is intending to write off trait value charged from farmers for BG-II, the minister said: "Yes Sir, in order to ensure the availability of the Bt cotton seed to farmers at fair, reasonable and affordable prices and curtail the charging of exorbitant price."
In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, the minister also said although industry body NSAI says BG-II has become ineffective against pink bollworm, government research body ICAR believes the technology is still good and is effective against American bollworm and spotted bollworm. For this reason, farmers are cultivating Bt cotton in more than 87 per cent of cotton area.
Singh said "no seed firm has informed" that Bollgard-II or BG-II has proven to be ineffective in the last season as the pink bollworm has developed resistance to the technology.
Bt cotton is the only Genetically Modified (GM) crop allowed for commercial cultivation in the country. There is a moratorium on Bt brinjal.
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