There may be facts, data, evidence, and then somewhere in between lies an element of truth in any controversy.
But controversies over Bt cotton cultivation in India are a classic case of how some die-hard opponents of modern biotechnology present a confuse the issue for the people through the media.
It seems the people generally do not seem to care whether Genetically Modified (GM) crops are good or bad as most often they are either ignorant or do not understand these issues, thus becoming gullible to incessant propaganda. Scientists seldom communicate properly with the outside world. However, anti-biotechnology activists go the whole hog to “inform” the people through the media that everything is wrong with Bt cotton in India.
The case in point is an article by Kavita Kuruganti, published in the Deccan Herald on February 12. The article exaggerates, misinterprets, twists, and is outrightly deceptive about the conclusions of some authentic peer reviewed research conducted by professional scientists and economists based on empirical field data.
Not beneficial?
Indian Bt cotton growers reaped an additional income of Rs 10,000 per hectare from their cultivation. One should wonder why cotton farmers keep growing Bt cotton seeds if they are not beneficial. In a recent remark, a Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice observed that the Rs 4,500 crore pesticide industry has suffered huge losses since the advent of Bt cotton. It has been designed to cut down the pesticide input, not to speak of environmental gains, health and social side benefits.
These facts can be verified through numerous studies conducted by IIM-Ahmedabad and Bangalore, besides Andhra University at Visakhapatnam, and other prestigious centres of learning in Hyderabad and Pune.
However the industry, traders, and salesmen are accused of hyping their product which is their wont. Which industry does not tout its product to increase sales, a well known marketing strategy?
Farmers will not be fooled by any amount of hype or advertisement once they realise that a particular seed, chemical or instrument does not work, they will drop at best or demand compensation at worst.
But it has been proved that in 2008, the Bt cotton acreage in India is the highest since its advent according to ISAAA (The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications), the only international organisation that tracks global acreage of GM crops cultivation since 1996.
No scientist has ever claimed that Bt cotton was engineered to increase yield as alleged by the anti-GM lobby.
However sometimes, the benefits that accrue from alleviating the yield tend to drag due to pest pressure and may lead to an increase in yield by 20-50 per cent.
States performance
The article in question alleges that the Bt cotton yield has decreased in Madhya Pradesh. If Bt cotton yield has decreased in Madhya Pradesh, then cotton growers will and should stop buying Bt cotton seeds, and go back to non-Bt cotton seeds. It is not true that non-Bt cotton seeds have vanished from the market. Then, why are farmers buying these allegedly poor yielding Bt cotton seeds?
Regarding variability in cotton productivity in Gujarat it can be due to various uncontrollable factors and for sure, Bt cotton seeds alone does not contribute to overall productivity.
The fact is that Bt cotton is a veritable cottage industry in Gujarat with hundreds of Bt cotton variants being sold and each one of them has a fair share of the market. Why then would the Bt cotton business thrive in Gujarat if it is not really beneficial?
According to the Central Cotton Research Institute at Nagpur, in the history of cotton cultivation in India only twice there has been quantum jump in cotton production in India; once when hybrid cotton was introduced in the 1970s and second the introduction of Bt cotton. The fact of the matter is that the cotton yield in the country which stagnated for decades has now recorded the second largest yield overtaking even China.
