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Bt cotton has failed in Vidarbha: study (16/2/2007)

1.Bt cotton has failed in Vidarbha: study
2.Low-cost cultivation can save Vidarbha farmers

EXTRACTS: the high input costs of Bt cotton had increased indebtedness. The study had shown that 70 per cent of small farmers had already lost their landholdings as collateral for loans that they could never repay... The study reveals that on average, farmers who adopted Bt cotton lost Rs. 1,725 per acre. (item 1)

Sudhir Kumar Goyal, the Amravati divisional commissioner, blames the indiscriminate promotion of cost-intensive farming, even in un-irrigated areas, for the poor condition of farmers in the state.

He cited the case of Yavatmal [a suicide-prone district of western Vidarbha] where the annual spending on pesticides is Rs 300 million and the use of BT cotton rampant, as an illustration of promotion of cost-intensive farming in un-irrigated areas. (item 2)
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1.Bt cotton has failed in Vidarbha: study
'Its high input costs have increased farmers' indebtedness'
Special Correspondent
The Hindu, 16 February 2007
http://www.hindu.com/2007/02/16/stories/2007021617501300.htm

MUMBAI: A new study on the introduction of Bt cotton in Vidarbha reveals that it has failed in the region. Suman Sahai, Director of Gene Campaign, told journalists on Wednesday that despite specific knowledge that Bt cotton would not work in rainfed areas, the government had introduced it in Vidarbha. The result was that in an area with a history of indebtedness, the high input costs of Bt cotton had increased indebtedness. The study had shown that 70 per cent of small farmers had already lost their landholdings as collateral for loans that they could never repay.

The Gene Campaign study, which will be ready in four to five weeks, consisted of a technology adoption study to look at how Bt cotton was adopted in Vidarbha. It is based on interviews with around 500 cotton farmers from Amravati and Yavatmal districts. Preliminary data shows that farmers who had adopted Bt cotton had a net lower income than non-Bt cotton farmers.

Dr. Sahai said that Bt cotton did better in irrigated areas and that it was a mistake to introduce it in an area like Vidarbha. It did not perform well in the region because inputs costs were high, including the cost of the seeds, there was an abundance of spurious seeds and the technology had been adopted without any preparation of the farmers for the complex management practices that were needed. Seed dealers, she said, encouraged farmers to buy far more fertilizer and pesticide than was needed, thereby raising their input costs. They promised farmers that they would get between 12 to 15 quintals per acre when the actual production was in the range of three to five quintals per acre. At the same time cotton prices came down with the import of Chinese cotton. The study reveals that on average, farmers who adopted Bt cotton lost Rs. 1,725 per acre. "Such economics cannot work," she said.

The study revealed that many farmers adopted Bt cotton because they believed it was a "government seed" and did not know that it was privately produced and marketed. They also accepted it because the government was actively promoting the technology. While local officials, like the Agriculture Commissioner of Amravati, were aware of the failure of Bt cotton, the state agriculture department continued to promote it. "The role of the government has been irresponsible and damaging," said Dr. Sahai.

Dr. Sahai also pointed that Bt was a limited time technology. In the United States, where it has been introduced 10 years ago, it had already developed resistance. This was also happening in China. In India, she said, "we are seeing resistance earlier because of rampant proliferation of illegal seeds and the wrong techniques being used."

The Bt technology was not need driven but supply driven, said Dr. Sahai.

She stressed that cotton farmers had not demanded it and that in any case, the expression of the Bt cotton gene worked for only 90 days while Indian cotton took 160 days to mature. In other words, during the crucial period when the crop needed protection from pests, it remained unprotected.

Side effects

The study had also collected anecdotal evidence about other side effects of Bt cotton on plants and animals.

For instance, cattle deaths had been reported in areas where they grazed in harvested Bt cotton fields, women working in cotton fields had complained of rashes, and there were reports that mango trees were not flowering.

Despite such reports, the government had not conducted tests to establish whether any of this could be attributed to the introduction of Bt cotton. The impact of cotton oil, extracted from Bt cotton, on human and animal health had also not been considered.

Dr. Sahai said it was essential to conduct safety tests and also put in place a regulatory system before any new technology is introduced.
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2.Low-cost cultivation can save Vidarbha farmers
Indo-Asian News Service Amravati (Maharashtra), February 16, 2007
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1929334,000900040001.htm

Low-cost farming and regeneration of water resources can be a way out of misery for farmers who are driven to desperation and suicides, says a senior Maharashtra official.

Sudhir Kumar Goyal, the Amravati divisional commissioner, blames the indiscriminate promotion of cost-intensive farming, even in un-irrigated areas, for the poor condition of farmers in the state.

The five suicide-prone districts of western Vidarbha, namely Amravati, Akola, Yavatmal, Buldana and Washim, which have reported close to 1,500 suicides in the last 20 months, fall within Goyal's jurisdiction.

"My heart goes out for those who ended their lives out of acute frustration and for their bereaved families even as I am worried about those caught in the web of a flawed system," Goyal said in an interview.

Two massive relief packages are under implementation in the state. Goyal, the implementing authority for the prime minister's as well as the state government's relief package, admitted that the crisis had worsened in recent times.

Indebtedness is a consequence of wrong agricultural practices, unbridled market forces and inadequate protection against the vagaries of nature.

"In fact, the crisis is more about the millions of farmers who are struggling for survival in a flawed system amid adversity without proper help and guidance," Goyal said.

His prescription to end the crisis: low-cost farming with high stress on micro-watershed development in un-irrigated areas.

"We allocate Rs 400 billion for irrigation on 15 per cent of the cultivable area and only Rs 40 billion for watershed development on 85 per cent of the rain-fed area," he pointed out, citing the case of Maharashtra where he has done a stint as agriculture commissioner.

He said the introduction of high yield varieties had eroded the sustenance base and the shift to cash crops without regard to the soil type and climatic conditions was proving to be the compounding factors.

He cited the case of Yavatmal, where the annual spending on pesticides is Rs 300 million and the use of BT cotton rampant, as an illustration of promotion of cost-intensive farming in un-irrigated areas.

Till the 1960s, farmers produced traditional varieties of food grains for sale as well as self-consumption. Seeds and manure were also produced on-farm as was fodder for cattle. Hybrid food varieties, which replaced traditional ones, do not yield seeds and fodder.

With many farmers completely abandoning food crops, they have to buy food for self-consumption along with seeds and fodder. Chemical fertilisers and pesticides, which the cash crops and hybrid food varieties need, are of course the costlier inputs that the farmers have to buy even as the prices of farm produce are going down, he said.

An attendant contradiction, Goyal said, is that irrigated agriculture is heavily subsidised - be it water, fertilisers, pesticides, insecticides - while there is no subsidy on agriculture in the rain-fed area.

The bureaucrat has been pressing for a fool-proof crop insurance scheme to mitigate the farmers' sufferings on account of drought and excess rain and advocating market reforms to shield them from mindless market forces.

Because of cost-intensive farming that requires loans, the cotton farmer has become a bonded labourer on his own farm, as he cannot earn even as much as he should pay others as wage labour, Goyal pointed out.

While the revival of the old chavadi system - a feature of community life in which village adults would sit together and care for each other's welfare - or joint families seems difficult, promotion of low-cost farming, measures to increase the farmers' net income and protective mechanism such as crop insurance and market reforms should be pressed vigorously, he stressed.

Another important input would be the creation of secondary or 'off-farm' sources of income like dairy, goat-rearing and other agro-based vocations that the government is trying to promote, he said.

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