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World's biggest rice exporters to ban use of GM rice / India set to become world's biggest organic cotton producer (23/11/2006)

1.World's leading rice exporting countries to cooperate on preventing use of GM rice
2.India set to become world's biggest organic cotton producer

GM WATCH COMMENT: Thai rice exporters are said to have done very well out of the current US rice crisis and both Thailand and Vietnam have clearly learned the lessons. They've now signed a Memorandum of Understanding that commits them, amongst other things, to cooperating to prevent GM rice cultivation in their respective countries. (item 1)

The Indian government, of course, is completely failing to protect it's rice industry from the kind of rice trials that triggered the US crisis. But there's good news about the growth in organic cotton production in India. (item 2)

This follows last week's news about growing bollworm resistance to Bt cotton in Gujarat (Bt cotton bubble set to burst: Experts)
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7275

The news that experts think Bt-resistance is already set to make the technology redundant in India is the final insult to the families of the indebted cotton farmers who've been driven to take their own lives after being ruined by expensive Bt seeds and other input costs.

Meanwhile as we previously reported, a recent study on organic cotton production in India found that organic producers, when compared to their conventional counterparts, benefitted from:
* 40% lower costs for inputs
* 13-20% lower variable production costs
* total labour inputs that were not significantly higher
* and 4-6% higher average cotton yields

All of which meant a far lower need to take up loans, and hence a much reduced vulnerability to loan sharks.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7077

There is also a rapidly expanding international market for organic cotton - with even the likes of Wal-Mart and Levis getting in on the act.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7077

As we've said before, the Indian government has an increasingly clear choice. It can get behind such approaches, help farmers escape the debt-trap and end the burgeoning scandal of farm suicides, or it can continue to cosy up to Bush and Monsanto and hype expensive GM crops to its farmers, putting their markets at risk in the process.
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1.World's leading rice exporting countries to cooperate on preventing use of GM rice

extract: "The world's leading rice exporting countries, Thailand and Vietnam, agreed Thursday... to cooperate on preventing use of genetically modified rice, as required by the European Union, [Chukiat Opaswong, chairman of the Thai Rice Exporters Association] said."
http://www.thanhniennews.com/business/?catid=2&newsid=22297

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2.INDIA: Domestic organic cotton production accounts 31.71 pct [shortened]
Bharat Textile, November 15 2006
http://www.bharattextile.com/newsitems/2002101

COIMBATORE: The California based non-profit organisation, Organic Exchange in its latest organic cotton fiber report (for spring 2006) has revealed that India has accounted for production of 9,835 tons of organic cotton or 31.71 percent in the world clean cotton production, said Mr Simon Ferrigno, Farm Development Director of the Organic Exchange said in a release.

Further, India is expected to overtake Turkey, the current global leader in production of organic cotton during 2006-07 cotton season and India along with Pakistan in South Asia and Turkey along with Israel from West Asia are competing for the top position even during the 2005-06 growing season.

Simon added that India is presently being the second largest producer of organic cotton and is expected to emerge as the world's number one producer of organic cotton in the next cropping season.

In India, the textile trade is becoming conscious on issues such as the pesticides poisoning, environmental declarations among global supply chains and farmer suicides; whereas another strong factor is that it pushed global brands and retailers into organic cotton garment marketing.

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