2-Plants: Bt cotton proves a failure in Andhra Pradesh

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TITLE:  Sub -- Bt cotton failure: It's now official
SOURCE: The AgBioIndia Bulletin, India
        http://www.agbioindia.org
DATE:   Mar 5, 2003

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Sub -- Bt cotton failure: It's now official

A fortnight after the international media was taken for an easy ride by a
speculative research paper published by the noted scientific journal --
Science, and written by two researchers from the University of California
at Berkeley and the University of Bonn, Germany, the verdict is out. Bt
cotton has failed miserably in Andhra Pradesh in southern parts of India.

It is now official. The Andhra Pradesh Agriculture Minister has stated
this on TV and has been quoted in the print media. A few months back, the
Karnataka Agriculture Minister had gone on record saying that Bt cotton
was a failure. And in Maharashtra, Bt cotton failed in the farm of the
well-known and much respected social worker and environmentalist Baba
Amte. Incidentally, this crop was monitored by scientists from the
adjoining agriculture university. What more evidence is required now.

The monumental failure of the first GM crop to have been released in
India and that too in the very first year of its commercial release ---
what Devinder Sharma had referred earlier as the 'biggest scientific
fraud' since Independence --- calls for a criminal investigation. It is
high time the country holds the scientists (who approved the Bt seeds)
accountable for the debacle. Scientists can no longer be allowed to play
with the lives of poor and subsistence farmers. Already more than 10,000
cotton growers have taken the fatal route to escape the humiliation that
comes from increasing indebtedness -- a direct consequence of faulty
scientific advise.

Environment Minister T.R.Baalu had misled Parliament in December 2002
when he made a statement saying that 'Bt cotton was a success".
Investigations need also to be launched into the role of regulatory
bodies, including the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) and
the Department of Biotechnology. Some NGOs had earlier asked for an
enquiry by the chief vigilance commissioner into the working of these two
departments/bodies.

Contents:

1. Bt cotton proves a failure in Andhra Pradesh -- Watch the video !
2. Bt cotton proves a failure in Andhra Pradesh --- Sun TV
3. It's Official Now - Bt Cotton 95% Failure --- Greenpeace

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1. Bt cotton proves a failure in Andhra Pradesh -- Star TV
http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?template=Btcotton

March 3, 2003.

The NDTV, which beams the Star TV news in India, has the news story on
video on its website. If you want to view the news report that was
carried by Star TV, click on the URL above.

--------------------------------------------------


2. Bt cotton proves a failure in Andhra Pradesh
http://www.sunnt.com/news/regional/andhra/andhra.asp?id=7242

Sun Network

Hyderabad, Mar 03 - It was hailed as one of the biggest advances in
Indian agriculture. However, there are now clear indicators that the
genetically modified Bt cotton has been a failure at least in Andhra
Pradesh. Farmers in Andhra Pradesh grew Bt cotton crop on 8,000 acres
last year. The genetically modified crop with in-built pest resistance
was expected to reduce heavy input cost on pesticides and also increase yield.

But the state government says farmers aren't getting the yields they were
promised and the poor quality of the crop also fetches a lower price in
the market.

"Overall information is that the farmers have not experienced very
positive and encouraging results," remarked V S Rao, Agriculture
Minister, Andhra Pradesh.

Jaipal Reddy, a cotton farmer from Warangal district, says Bt cotton has
fetched up to Rs 200 less per quintal because the quality was inferior.

"The sprays are less, but the farmers are very unhappy about the size of
the bolls," said Jaipal Reddy, Chairman, Cotton Committee.

Advocates of Bt cotton say drought conditions are also to blame for the
decreased yield. "It has definitely helped in reducing pesticide use. But
whether it has given sufficient yield or not is a different question. Bt
cotton by and large is supposed to have irrigation facilities," said
Chengal Reddy, Farmers' Activist.

Despite the unimpressive performance of Bt cotton, the Andhra Pradesh
government is still open minded about genetically modified crops, as the
government believes that biotechnology has tremendous potential to
improve crop productivity.

-----------------------------------------------


3. It's Official Now - Bt Cotton 95% Failure.
Greenpeace calls for the Central Government to Acknowledge the Truth.

Warangal/New Delhi, 04 February 2003: The official verdict is out - V S
Rao,Minister for Agriculture, Government of Andhra Pradesh has declared
that Bt Cotton farmers have not experienced very positive and encouraging
results. Raja Mouli, a farmer of Nagaram Village, Warangal District, now
curses the temptation that led him to experiment with Bt Cotton, "The
official report has only confirmed what I knew all along. I have
experienced the failure of the crop first-hand. Now that the truth is
out, I want other farmers to be saved from this disaster - the government
should stop these criminal companies at least in time for the next season."

In personal interviews with Greenpeace, Agricultural Officers from
Warangal district have confirmed that Bt Cotton has been a near complete
failure. In Parakala, for instance, a whopping 95 percent of Bt Cotton
farmers have reported losses, similarly in Chityal. Ironically, Bt Cotton
was promoted as an alternative in Warangal which was showcased as one of
the hotbeds for excessive usage of pesticides and farmer suicides. The
picture that is now emerging proves otherwise.

P Damoder, Secretary of Sarvodaya Youth Organisation, Warangal, adds,
"The government must force the company to pay compensation. The farmers
in this district cannot take these setbacks - any further deceit at the
hands of companies like Mahyco-Monsanto is sure to instigate a fresh
spate of farmer suicides. It is very urgent that the government steps in
to stop the ongoing 'bookings' for Bollguard (Bt Cotton seeds) and
prevent the aggressive false publicity that the company is indulging in.
They may have more money,but it is upto us, and our government, to see
that the farmers know the truth about Bt Cotton failures."

Greenpeace has been campaigning at the state, national and international
level to call for a complete rejection of Genetically Modified Organisms
(GMOs), Bt Cotton prime amongst the crops that are crippling the farmers
agronomically, and putting the ecology at risk too. Earlier this year,
they sought to bring the matter to the attention of the Minister for
Environment and Forests, Mr. T.R. Baalu. They confronted him with
evidence that his statement to the Parliament, stating that Bt Cotton had
shown a 'satisfactory' performance, was a complete lie - and offered him
video testimonies directly from farmers.

"At that time, the Hon'ble Minister's preposterous response was that
farmers 'tend to lie.' He brushed aside the testimonies we presented. Now
that the truth is official, the Central Government has no choice but to
pay heed to the farmers, or to the state government officials now
corroborating ourstand," says Divya Raghunandan, GE Campaigner,
Greenpeace India. "If the Hon'ble Minister remains unconvinced even after
the Andhra Pradesh government's acknowledgement of the truth, we will
have to question his motives."

Greenpeace India and Sarvodaya Youth Organisation today held the first in
a series of village-level workshops to facilitate informed discussions
amongst farmers on GE technologies, the hazards therein, and the
alternatives available. Today's workshop, in Kapulakanaparthy village,
Warangal District, was attended by more than 70 farmers from four
villages, who shared disturbingly similar experiences of Bt Cotton failure.

Kavitha Kuruganti, Sustainable Agriculture Campaigner, Greenpeace India,
says, "It is high time that the government supported well-established,
safer non-GE or non-pesticide alternatives to cotton farming. We demand
that Mr. T.R. Baalu withdraw his statement and accept the all-round
failure of Bt Cotton. Greenpeace also calls upon Members of Parliament to
question the government on this, so that the truth is publicly known."

Additional reading:

Please refer to AgBioIndia Bulletins at http://www.agbioindia.org/
archives for a number of reports and analysis on the failure of Bt cotton
in India.


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