INDIA: Critics Dispute Success of Genetically Engineered Cotton

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Dec 23 2002 (IPS) - Claims made by India’s ministry for environment and forests that the first officially-approved crop of genetically modified cotton has been a success are being challenged by independent scientists and farmers’ groups.

Minister T R Baalu announced in Parliament last week that Bt cotton, from the seed transnational firm Monsanto and marketed by its local subsidiary Mahyco, has shown ”higher number of bolls, reduced number of sprays (of insecticides) for control of bollworms and higher yields” in the more than 100,000 acres planted to it in six Indian states.

The seeds of Bt cotton were spliced with genes taken from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) for resistance to pests like the bollworm.

Bt cotton has been planted in southern Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, central Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and western Gujarat.

Ignoring warnings and litigation by local and international environment groups, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), which operates under Baalu’s ministry, gave approval in March to Monsanto-Mahyco to market its controversial variety of cotton.

Any failure in the recently harvested crops was attributed by officials in Baalu’s ministry to drought, vagaries of the weather including droughts and unseasonal rains, and uninformed farmers.

But field trips by voluntary groups that oppose introduction of genetically modified crops tell a different story. The real tale, they say, is one of colossal failures, unsustainablity and serious danger of genetic contamination from ‘vertical gene transfer’ to other species.

Said Afsar Jafri, researcher for the Research Foundation for Science Technology and Environment (RFSTE), a leading voluntary group: ”Farmers were not spared from having to spray with pesticides nor did they get higher incomes – the basis on which (government) clearance was granted.”

Jafri confirmed disastrous failures of cotton crops in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh states in a detailed report of surveys carried out by a team of the RFSTE that he led between October and November.

Far from making good the promise made by Monsanto-Mahyco that Bt cotton would increase yield per acre by 200 dollars, farmers ended up spending more than 100 dollars per acre from their own pockets and in most cases were faced with ruination.

”Importantly, members of the Vidarhba (central India) Organic Farmers’ Association were the only ones who made a good profit because they spent nothing on chemical fertilisers or pesticides and they saved seeds from the previous crop,” Jafri said.

The RFSTE study placed total losses incurred by farmers due to switching to Bt cotton at 22 million dollars in 100,000 acres in one cropping season.

But the environmental losses could be much more. This is because many farmers did not care to plant ‘refugia’ or a belt of ordinary cotton around fields of Bt cotton.

”A farmer, Raju Ratnakar Gandhewar told us that he had sold off the non-Bt cotton seeds supplied by Monsanto-Mahyco to be planted in the refugia as did many others,” Jafri said

The only attempt made by Monsanto-Mahyco to conform to GEAC conditions was to supply audiocassettes, a small booklet on bollgard and a leaflet providing information.

But even this was not always the case, although all farmers were made to sign documents saying they were liable to various penalties under the Environment Protection Act.

”The company simply laid responsibility on the farmers in an unfair transfer of liability for non-compliance of GEAC conditions and the EPA,” Jafri said.

Environment officials said that by and large, the farmers had adhered to the requirement that 20 percent of each field be reserved for refugia with five encircling rows of non-Bt cotton.

They insisted that any breach was not intentional and had to do with the irregular shape of some plots.

Monsanto spokeswoman Ranjana Smetacek said the company had limited sales this year to farmers already familiar with Bt-cotton planting requirements during the earlier trials conducted by the company.

But in fact, the RFSTE has joined farmers’ groups in challenging in the Supreme Court permission granted to Monsanto-Mahyco to carry out trials of genetically modified cotton, which have been going on since 1998. In some places, Bt cotton crops have even been uprooted by farmers.

The Bt cotton failures come as no surprise, says Suman Sahai, who leads Gene Campaign. He carried out a tour of Wardha district in India’s main cotton-growing area in June.

Sahai said farmers’ woes in the region started with the pricing of cotton seeds. The Monsanto-Mahyco variety was sold at 30 dollars a packet – thrice the price of ordinary varieties, but not conferring any advantage in actual yield.

”Even if the cost of spraying by using Bt cotton was reduced by up to 60 percent, it would still not make up for costs of inputs starting with the price of seeds,” she said. She said farmers were given the impression that yields would go up phenomenally and offset the higher seed costs.

Likewise, nobody was talking about getting a decent price for cotton, which was going down because of the government’s decision to import cotton.

Vijay Jhawandia of the Maharashtra-based farmers organisation ‘Shetkari Sanghatana’ are among those now demanding an open discussion of Bt cotton failures in his state, especially when ordinary varieties were doing well.

Another farmers’ group, the Vidarhabha Jan Andolan Samiti (People’s Movement in Vidarbha), has already served legal notice on the government demanding compensation. ”If the government does not take cognisance of the notice we will move the courts,” said Kishore Tiwari, the movement’s president.

As for refugia, farmers did not see any reason to leave 20 percent to refuge because the hype extolling Bt cotton was so excessive and so assiduously promoted by the scientific community and government departments that they built up almost unrealistic expectations, critics say.

”The farmers argued that if this cotton is so super, why should they deny themselves the benefit from the remaining 20 percent of their land,” Sahai said.

INDIA: Critics Dispute Success of Genetically Engineered Cotton

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Dec 23 2002 (IPS) - Claims made by India’s ministry for environment and forests that the first officially-approved crop of genetically modified cotton has been a success are being challenged by independent scientists and farmers’ groups.
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