EXCERPT: Anametaria added that the state's agriculture department had promoted the seeds as part of the pilot project to check the quality of the genetically advanced Bollgard II, popularly known as Bt cotton II.

"We have decided to go to the consumer court by the end of this month. We have asked all farmers in Madhya Pradesh to file cases against the company".
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Farmers to move consumer court over Bt cotton
New Delhi, January 10 2006
http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=215572&cat=Science

About 50 cotton growers of Madhya Pradesh plan to approach the state's consumer court over the alleged failure of genetically modified Bt Cotton II to deliver promised results.

"We were promised by the company (Mahyco) that these seeds were of better quality and would have higher yield," said Rancholal Gobaji Anametaria, a farmer from Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh.

"We have decided to go to the consumer court by the end of this month. We have asked all farmers in Madhya Pradesh to file cases against the company," he told reporters here Tuesday.

Farmers and members of the Beej Swaraj Abhiyan were in the capital to press their demand before the government that the genetically modified variety of seeds should not be promoted in the country as it had allegedly failed to deliver the promised results.

The Madhya Pradesh government has permitted Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company (Mahyco) to carry out a pilot project in the state.

Anametaria added that the state's agriculture department had promoted the seeds as part of the pilot project to check the quality of the genetically advanced Bollgard II, popularly known as Bt cotton II.

Another farmer, Brij Bhushan Singh Rathore from Jamli, said: "We were promised that the new seeds would yield around 25 quintal per acre but at the end of the season we found that the yield was only 6 to 7 quintal."

Rathore said that Mahyco had said that the hybrid seeds would need less fertiliser and pesticide in comparison to non-BT seeds but these crops also required similar quantities of fertilisers and pesticides for the crop.

"We have carried out a survey of 50 farmers who had taken part in the pilot project. All of them have found that the yield of the seeds was less," said Nilesh Desai of Beej Swaraj Abhiyan.

Desai added similar surveys would also be conducted in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

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