This area coverage under Bt cotton is almost neligible.... This points to the low acceptability of Bt cotton by farmers", says an internal Union (national government) report.

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Area Under Bt Cotton Negligible, Says Agriculture Ministry
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=50817
Ashok B Sharma
Financial Express, New Delhi, Jan 18

The area coverage under India's first transgenic crop, Bt cotton, is still a miniscule as compared to the total area under cotton output.  "In 2002-03, the first year of its approval for commercial cultivation, Bt cotton covered an area of only 38,038 hectare area representing 0.51 per cent of the area under cotton in the period. In 2003-04 with good monsoon rains the area under Bt cotton increased to 92,000 hectare. This area coverage under Bt cotton is almost neligible as compared to over 9 million hectare under cotton crop in the country. This points to the low acceptability of Bt cotton by farmers", says an internal report of the Union agriculture ministry.

The ministry has noted that the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) approved in March 2002, three varieties of Bt cotton developed by Mahyco in collaboration with the US multinational Monsanto for commercial cultivation in south and central India, including Gujarat and Maharashtra. The three approved varieties are Bt Mech 12, Bt Mech 162 and Bt Mech 184. The southern and central parts of the country have the major cotton producing areas, accounting for over 7.29 million hectare out of the total area of 9.10 million hectare.

The largest area under cotton crop in the country is in Maharashtra with about 3.10 million hectare, followed by about 1.75 million hectare in Gujarat, about 1.10 million hectare in Andhra Pradesh, about 0.61 million hectare in Karnataka, about 0.54 million hectare area in Madhya Pradesh and about 0.19 million hectare in Tamil Nadu. Punjab, Haryana, UP and Rajasthan where Bt cotton has not yet been approved for commercial cultivation have smaller areas under cotton cultivation.

The agriculture ministry's findings run down the hype created by US based International Service for the Aquisition of Agri-biotech Association (ISAAA). The ISAAA study has claimed that the Bt cotton area in India has increased to 100,000 hectare in 2003-04, while the government estimate put it at 92,000 hectare. The ISAAA Southeast Asia director, Dr Randy Hauteau briefing the media over a worldwide teleconferencing last Tuesday had claimed that the area under Bt cotton in India in 2003-04 has increased to 100,000 hectare, but refused to comment further when questioned about the methodology for arriving at such a conclusion and the source of the data generated. He, however, made clear that the estimated area under Bt cotton relates to the approved varieties and does not take into account the sowing of unapproved varieties in Gujarat and Punjab.

Dr Hauteau was also unable to justify the claims made in the ISAAA study that "in 2003-04 almost one-third of the global biotech crop area was grown in developing countries." ISAAA study has also been criticised by Aaron deGrassi of the Institute of Development Studies on issue of the hype created about the acceptability of transgenic crops in Africa. Greg Jaffe, biotech director of the Center for Science in the public Interest said "these approved transgenic crops like soya, corn and cotton have limited benefits to many developing countries farmers."

The ISAAA study has also projected "within next five years 10 million farmers in 25 or more countries will plant 100 million hectare of biotech crops. The global market value of biotech crops is expected to increase from approximately $ 4.5 billion this year to $ 5 billion or more by 2005."

The NGOs and farmers' organisations in the country have conducted studies which show the failure of Bt cotton also in the second year of its cultivation. The Opposition members in the Parliament in the winter session demanded the government to rescue the farmers affected by the failure of Bt cotton. The Union minister of state for agriculture, Hukam Deo Narayan Yadav addmited government receiving reports of failure of Bt cotton from some states.  

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