2-Plants: Failure of Bt-cotton in India

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TITLE:  Failure of Bt. Cotton in India
SOURCE: Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, India
DATE:   Sep 26, 2002

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Failure of Bt. Cotton in India
How many more farmers will Monsanto sacrifice for creating profits by 
selling deceit

On 26th March 2002 inspite of inadequate tests of biosafety and viability, 
Monsanto managed to get clearance for commercial planting of three 
varieties of genetically engineered Bt. cotton from Genetic Engineering 
Approval Committee (GEAC) under Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).

Ironically, this permission was granted in spite of an ongoing Supreme 
Court case, filed by RFSTE, challenging the 1998 field trials and stating 
that there were numerous irregularities and violations of biosafety laws 
and guidelines in previous year field trials. Even then the GEAC have 
cleared Bt cotton for commercial release by Monsanto-Mahyco.

The Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE), 
Navdanya, farmers unions and public interests groups in India had warned 
the government that this irresponsible, rushed clearance would have high 
cost for farmers in terms of the economic sovereignty and seed sovereignty. 
What we have had predicted has come true.

In three major states Bt. cotton has been wiped out completely leaving 
farmers in great economic and livelihood crisis. Not only the new pests and 
diseases emerged, the Bt. cotton has failed to even prevent bollworm attack 
for which it has been designed. While Bt. cotton is sold as pest resistant 
seed in India, it has proved to be more vulnerable to pest and diseases 
than the traditional and conventional varieties.

Madhya Pradesh, the heart of the cotton-growing belt in India, witnessed 
total failure of genetically engineered Bt. cotton. The farmers of Khargoan 
district where Bt. is a 100% failure are up in arms against Monsanto-Mahyco 
that supplied these GM seeds and are demanding compensation from the 
company for the failure of their crop. The failure of the Bt. cotton has 
devastated the farmers since they have spent five to six times to buy seeds 
of Bt. than the normal seed. The economics that was worked out by the 
Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Genetic Engineering 
Approval Committee and Monsanto-Mahyco to promote this unsustainable 
technology has turned out to be untrue.

Bt. cotton has been afflicted with the 'leaf curl virus' in the whole of 
northern states of India. Dr Venugopal, ex-project coordinator of the 
Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR), Coimbatore told Business Line 
that while some of the private hybrids and varieties released earlier were 
resistant to LCV, Bt cotton was found susceptible to LCV.

In Maharashtra, the adjoining state of Madhya Pradesh, the same story has 
been repeated. In Vidarbha, primarily cotton growing area in Maharashtra, 
Bt. cotton crop has failed miserably. The first GE crop has been failed in 
30,000 hectares in this district alone, completely devastating the already 
poor farming community. The farmers of the area are demanding a 
compensation of Rs. 5000 million (500 crores rupees) to meet their economic 
loss lest they would take a legal action against the Government of 
Maharashtra and Monsanto-Mahyco for allowing sale of inadequately tested GM 
seeds.

The Bt. cotton crop in Vidarbha has been badly affected by the root-rot 
disease, a disease of roots. It is believed that this disease is caused due 
to wrong selection of Bt genes developed in America and brought to India. 
Many farmers have recorded only upto 50% germination of seeds and many 
others had poor germination, which is suspected to be caused by both, 
drought and poor seed quality. While other cotton varieties have also been 
adversely affected by the drought, they report a failure rate of only 
around 20%.

President of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, Mr. Kishore Tiwari, gave a 
legal notice to Ministry of Agriculture demanding the recovery of loss of 
Rs. 500 (5000 million rupees) crore incurred by the farmers due to sowing 
of Bt. cottonseeds.

The main idea behind approving genetically engineered Bt. cotton as a 
commercial crop was that this would increase farmers' income by reducing 
expenditure on chemical pesticides, which accounts for 70-80% of the total 
expenditure on hybrid cotton due to the heavy infestation of pest, mainly 
American Bollworm in last 3-4 years and the increased evolution of 
resistance to the chemical pesticides.

However, in Gujarat there is a heavy infestation of bollworm on the Bt. 
cotton in the districts of Bhavanagar, Surendranagar and Rajkot. Initially 
Bt. Cotton was found resistant to Bollworms in the early phase of plant 
growth, but as soon as the formation of boll has started, the worms started 
attacking them. The Department of Agriculture, Government of Gujarat has 
written to the Gujarat Agricultural University to submit a status report 
providing detailed information about the kind and intensity of the damage. 
It has also been found that Gujarat is growing 18,000 hectares of the Bt. 
cotton more than the permitted 12,000 hectares by the Government of India. 
(Gujarat Samachar, 21st September 2002)

The failure of Bt. cotton case in India reaffirms RFSTE's stand of safety 
first- commercial release of any new genetically engineered crops (e.g. 
transgenic mustard) and organisms must be frozen till a proper independent 
tests are conducted, the proper biosafety structure are put in place and 
capacity is built at the multiple level of governments as well as farmers 
to deal with biosafety issues.

It is not just in the case of Bt. cotton that corporation like Monsanto are 
deceiving poor farmers. Monsanto is pushing the farmers of drought stricken 
and famine-ridden Udaipur and neighbouring districts of Rajasthan to take 
to industrial farming of maize, and to use its Roundup, no doubt as a 
prelude to introducing the genetically engineered Roundup Ready varieties 
once farmers are further pushed on to this ecologically genocidal herbicide 
trap. But Monsanto is introducing hybrid corn and Roundup (herbicide) with 
false claims to deceive poor and innocent farmers of Rajasthan.

Monsanto claims that as a result of the Humsafar programme, the yield of 
maize rose from 25 quintals per hectare to 50 quintals per hectare and the 
profitability of the farmers also doubled form Rs. 7500 per hectare to Rs. 
15000 per hectare, whereas its publicity brochures distributed among the 
farmers is claiming even much higher yields i.e. 50-90 quintals per acre 
(125-225/hectare).

However, a study conducted by RFSTE shows that Monsanto claims are based on 
utter lies. Monsanto's own field staff at Wana and Menar villages in 
Udaipur reported that their varieties have achieved maize productivity of 
only 12 quintals/acre (30 quintal/hec.).

Three Different and Contradictory Productivity Claims by Monsanto:
- Reported by Monsanto field staff:
   2.4 qtls/ bigha; 12 qtls/acre; 30 qtls/hectare
- Reported by Monsanto for the Humsafar Award:
   4 qtls/bigha; 20 qtls/acre; 50 qtls/hectare
- Reported by Monsanto in its brochure:
   18-20 qtls/bigha; 50-90 qtls/acre; 125-225 qtls/hectare

However discussion with farmers growing Monsanto varieties and desi (local) 
varieties reveals that there is hardly any difference in the yield compared 
to the desi maize varieties. While desi maize varieties yield 6 quintals 
per acre (15 quintals per hectare) whereas Monsanto varieties yield 7 
quintals per acre (17.5 quintals per hectare).

Moreover there is a vast difference in the cost of the desi and Monsanto 
varieties. While cost of these Monsanto seeds vary from Rs. 250 to 275 for 
a packet of 5 Kg., whereas the same quantity of Desi/Local varieties costs 
only Rs. 25. However there have been no tests, whether these "high 
yielding" hybrid varieties seeds are genetic engineered. This is urgently 
required since Monsanto has recently extended its operation to 98 villages 
in Udaipur, Chittorgarh and Banswara districts of Rajasthan and so far So 
far about 80 tonnes of seed have been sold to the farmers of the region.

However, Monsanto's much-lauded project "Humsafar" actually involves the 
introduction of its eco-narcotic, Roundup (the controversial glysophate-
based herbicide) to small and marginal peasants Udaipur, and turning an 
important local food and fodder crop into raw material for industry. 
Monsanto, through its new varieties of maize, is pushing to increase the 
sales of its broad-based herbicide Roundup in Rajasthan.

For Roundup, farmers are being totally misled about its safety in a region, 
which is drought prone, the ready recipe for desertification.

Herbicide use is supposed to reduce labour involved in tilling and weeding, 
and at the same time, reduce competition for nutrition and space by killing 
of the weeds. The concept of weeds as competing for nutrition and space 
with cultivated crops is the result of monocultures, where all crops other 
than the one being "cultivated" is considered a weed. However, small 
farmers, such as the farmers in Rajasthan, traditionally cultivate more 
than one crop at a time. In fact, in typical traditional Indian 
agriculture, there is no concept of weeds. Plants that are not sown often 
provide food for humans, cattle, and finally for the soil as green manure. 
Many of these plants and their roots form the most critical ingredient of 
food security in the drought-stricken region, where people stave off famine 
through consuming these plants.

Often, the supposed weeds are a source of medicine for humans, for animals 
and for plants; they also may have pesticidal or other beneficial 
properties. Udaipur region in fact, is rich in its naturally growing 
medicinal plant diversity used by thousands of traditional healers for 
ayurvedic preparations.

The killing of agro-biodiversity by the broad spectrum herbicide will only 
wipeout the rich medicinal plants biodiversity but also the fodder for 
animals the which has become more scarce due to drought in Rajasthan. 
Already hundreds of animals have died in Rajasthan, the scarcity of fodder 
will lead to increased starvation and deaths of animals.

The case of both Bt. cotton and hybrid corn-Roundup sales confirms that the 
corporations like Monsanto are not selling farmers' prosperity but 
disaster. It is time for an independent assessment of Monsanto's seeds and 
products worldwide. Meantime the scientific call for a freeze on commercial 
release of any genetically engineered crop must be headed if poor peasants 
have to be saved.

For any further information:
Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE)
A - 60, Hauz Khas, New Delhi - 110016, INDIA
Tel: +91-11-6561868, 6562093
Fax: +91-11-6856795, 6562093
Email: rfste@vsnl.com



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