Plant Biotech Blog

China is now the rallying point and model in all discussions on Bt cotton in India. While identifying the ills of Bt cotton economics in India, the President of the Indian Seed Industry Association (ISIA) made certain incongruous remarks citing China as an example.

He stated that affordable prices of Bt cotton technology in China had helped it become a global leader in cotton production, with almost twice the average yield of India. This is wide off the mark, since it is the profitability to the farmer and the business community, and not yields, which is linked to technology costs.

A farmer determines the acreage under Bt cotton basing on anticipated returns and not on just seed costs. Yield depends upon the potential of the basic plant variety, its suitability to the soil type, control of pests and diseases, adequate and appropriate inputs of fertilizer, irrigation, weeding, and proper and timely advice given to the cultivators. If the Indian cotton varieties are deficient in yield potential, only the seed developers are to be blamed. Growing cotton as a rain fed crop on red soils increases acreage under the crop but brings down averages of quality and yield.

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This year, the southwest monsoon arrived in India six days ahead of schedule, kindling the hopes of cotton farmers on early sowing. The year 2006 is also the year of the La Nina phenomenon, the favourable wet weather that developed in the Pacific around March. La Nina is good for India as there was no drought in the past La Nina years.

The Indian cotton farmers in each of the three cotton zones have now a very wide choice of Bt cotton varieties. This year, in addition to the earlier 20 Bt cotton hybrids, the GEAC has so far released over 45 Bt cotton hybrids containing the Cry 1 Ac gene for commercial cultivation and approved over 60 hybrids for large scale field trials in the North, Central and South zones. Most of these varieties are Mahyco Monsanto Biotech’s (MMB) Bollgard I (Mon 531 event), many developed by MMB’s sublicensees. The GEAC has also approved two cotton hybrids, one with the fused Bt genes Cry 1 Ab + Cry 1 Ac (GFM) developed by Nath Seeds, and the other with stacked Bt genes Cry1 Ac and Cry 2 Ab (Bollgard II, Mon 15985) developed by MMB, for commercial release in the Central Zone.

In the face of a price war, cotton farmers in India, more particularly in the State of Andhra Pradesh (AP), are denied the cheer of the early monsoon and wide choice of Bt cotton varieties, on account of the problems with pricing of Bt cottonseed.

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