Bt cotton: The Chinese 'intrusion'

In early 2011, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) allowed the marketing of an 'indigenous' Bt seed developed by the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, which was later silently withdrawn without explanation allegedly to avoid a patent clash with Monsanto.

Such instances are not uncommon, with activists alleging the genetic modification (GM) technology has made inroads because the governments have been favouring big companies.

A second desi Bt cotton developed by Manjula Maralappanavar, a senior scientist at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, was put in cold storage for more than five years by the authorities. At least two scientists at the university told DH that every effort was made to sabotage Manjula's work, which would have reduced the cost of the Bt seeds.

“I appealed to everybody, from the authorities in the varsity to the prime minister’s office. Finally, the crop science division of ICAR conducted a PCR test of my seeds and gave a report, whose conclusion shocked me to the core,” Manjula told DH.

DH accessed the ICAR report which termed Manjula's Bt cotton as "100% Chinese event", essentially declaring that her seeds are not original. An 'event' is the successful incorporation of the Bt transgene into the plant cell. "No seed with the Chinese event has been introduced in India till now. In fact, the specific Chinese event has never been allowed in India even at the stage of biosafety checks or confined field trials,” Manjula said.

Manjula said she has disputed the ICAR report. “I still have pure seeds and I will prove my technology. But shouldn't there be an investigation on how the Chinese event contaminated our seeds? Such contaminations pose a serious threat to the safety of all cotton seeds," she said.

Another scientist said the evaluation report is a bombshell. “The finding of a Chinese event shows that the government is no longer in control of the seeds being sown in the country. How can a Bt variant illegally enter the premises of a varsity,” he asked.

The political connotations of a Chinese event seeping into the rural interior of Karnataka may have larger ramifications, but authorities are yet to get a grip on the havoc caused by the seeds which have got the government's stamp of approval.

Experts have found traces of illegal Bt variants in Gujarat as well, which has been described to have had a "history of illegal Bt plantings that do not appear in official statistics". For instance, Navbharat 151, a Gujarat cotton brand, was found in 2001 to contain unapproved Bt transgene in crops cultivated in an estimated 10,000 hectares.