Lots of excuses are made for Bt cotton in this article, such as:

"It's not the Bt cotton, it's the poor price for cotton"

"It's not the Bt cotton, it's the bad weather conditions"

But such excuses don't explain why Monsanto and its supporters have proclaimed the growing of Bt cotton in Makhatini to be a run-away success, generating massive economic benefits for the farmers and the area.

Monsanto has even claimed farmers gain an extra $90 per hectare; CropGen that farmers gain $113 per hectare; and ISAAA that farmers make an extra $50 per hectare.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1431

But the reality has been quite different. Indeed, if the South African government weren't, as the article notes, now distributing "free packs of Bt cotton seed as well as fertiliser, pesticides and herbicides to farmers in the area", there would be very few farmers still growing Bt cotton in South Africa.

A study published last year showed the number of farmers planting Bt cotton had dropped by 80% since 2000 and that farmer endebtedness had been exacerbated since Bt cotton was introduced. (BT COTTON IN MAKHATHINI: THE SUCCESS STORY THAT NEVER WAS)
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5287

The government subsidy is clearly aimed at propping up what was supposed to be a showcase project - not just for South Africa but for Africa as a whole, and one with a global PR pay-off. The massive drop out of farmers growing Bt cotton has forced South Africa's pro-GM government into this face saving operation.

Aaron DeGrassi of the Institute of Development of studies has always pointed to the misguided nature of this project. His report on Gm and poverty alleviation showed that GM cotton is at best irrelevant to poverty in the area, and at worst is actually deepening it.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1431

We asked Mariam Mayet from the African Centre for Biosafety in South Africa for her comments:

"Apparently the government is heavily subsidising the growing of GM cotton. Recently when I was on a local Radio talk show, Andrew Bennet from Monsanto advised us that he had just got off the phone with TJ Buthelezi [Monsanto's favoured farmer in Makhatini] who informed him that 5000 farmers will be growing GM cotton. We understand this to be the stacked variety, bt plus RR that Monsanto received approval for late last year after struggling to obtain approval for more than 3 years.

These people have been given little choice but to grow GM cotton because of the subsidised seeds of course, and access to a market - the gin is right in Makhathini. This sort of subsidisation is not govt policy that will be implemented uniformly to all small scale farmers throughout SA.

I told Andrew Bennet publically on the radio show, that it is scandalous - that they ought to be ashamed to use and abuse these farmers in this way. That we are net importers of cotton hence there is no real market for them here. Why use these poor farmers. What will they do if say if hypothetically speaking, West Africa opens up to growing GM cotton? Everyone will dump the farmers in the Makhathini, including the South African government."

Find out more about GMOs and African agriculture: http://www.biosafetyafrica.net/
---

SOUTH AFRICA: GM debate fought on cotton fields of KZN
© FAO [This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=51581&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa

GM cotton dominates the seed market

MAKHATHINI FLATS, 7 Feb 2006 (IRIN) - Taking a break from spraying his neat, one-hectare plot of young cotton plants with herbicide, Moses Mabika surveys the land that has been supporting his family for 45 years. He may not realise it, but he is standing at the epicenter of a heated debate about growing genetically modified (GM) crops in Africa.

The seed that sprouted Mabika's cotton plants was genetically modified to contain an insecticide that reduces the need to spray against bollworm, cotton's number one pest.

He will only have to spray his crop once or twice instead of six times in a season. The resulting savings in chemicals and labour, as well as higher yields, are supposed to more than compensate South African farmers like Mabika for the license fee they must pay to Monsanto, the US-based seed producer that holds the patent on Bollguard (Bt) cotton.

Mabika is among more than 2,000 smallholder farmers in this semi-arid area of northeastern KwaZulu-Natal province known as Makhathini Flats, who began growing GM cotton in 1999. South Africa is the only country on the continent with legislation in place that allows GM crops to be grown, and Makhathini Flats is one of the few areas in Africa where small-scale farmers are growing GM crops on a significant scale.

Given claims by the biotechnology industry that GM crops have a role to play in helping lift Africa's small-scale farmers out of poverty, both supporters and detractors of GM technology have followed the successes and failures of the Makhathini farmers with keen interest. Recent parliamentary hearings on amendments to South Africa's Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) Act have only intensified the scrutiny.

According to Monsanto and its supporters in the biotechnology industry, the vast majority of Makhathini farmers choose to plant Bt cotton over conventional seed varieties because they prefer it.

In a brochure documenting the uptake of Bt cotton in South Africa, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), a non-profit group that receives financial support from Monsanto, lists the benefits Makhathini farmers derive from growing Bt cotton as proof that "agricultural biotechnology, along with other farming strategies, offers a powerful tool to help farmers in developing countries improve productivit