A group of farmers' associations and non-governmental organisations have asked the Government to conduct a comprehensive, independent review of 10 years of Bt cotton in India. This study is very important as efforts are on to bring biotechnology in other crops in the country.
They have termed the claims made by seed firms and agri-biotechnology firms on purported benefits of Bt cotton as false hype.
“Government agencies should stop promoting Bt cotton and revive non-Bt seed production to make traditional seed available for farmers The Government should clearly educate farmers about the unsuitability and problems of Bt cotton particularly in rain-fed areas,” Mr G V Ramanjaneyulu of Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA) and Mr Kiran Vissa of Rythu Swarjya Vedika, said.
Addressing a round table on 10 years of Bt cotton here on Monday, they wanted Government to promote more sustainable solutions such as non-pesticide management, crop diversity and sustainable agriculture. They called for more funds for agriculture research in public sector.
“We should ensure freedom for institutions from big corporations in setting the research priorities,” they said.
Gains from bio-technology were short term. Technology is not the only solution for the problems being faced by agriculture. There is a spate of farmer suicides in 2011-12. This is more accentuated in cotton farmers. In Andhra Pradesh, out of 47 lakh acres planted with Bt cotton during the last kharif, crop in 33.73 lakh acres failed.
“In Maharashtra, the bad performance of cotton crop has led to lowering of production estimates significantly in spite of increase in area of cotton cultivation,” they said.
Stating that this was just a wake-up call for farmers, Parliamentarians, policy-makers and the media, they said the cotton crisis needed to be examined and reassessed critically in the context of a decade of introduction of biotechnology.
Myths
They said the propaganda on yield increase was a myth. In the pre-Bt cotton era beginning 2000-01, yield increase was put at 69 per cent. In the post-Bt cotton era, yield went up by 17 per cent in the first three years and declined in the subsequent two years.
“The main issue that worries stakeholders is the stagnation of productivity at an average of 500 kg lint a hectare for the past seven years,” they said, quoting a paper.