A fortnight after the international media was taken for an easy ride by a speculative research paper published by the noted scientific journal -- Science, and written by two researchers from the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Bonn, Germany, the verdict is out. Bt cotton has failed miserably in Andhra Pradesh in southern parts of India.
It is now official. The Andhra Pradesh Agriculture Minister has stated this on TV and has been quoted in the print media. A few months back, the Karnataka Agriculture Minister had gone on record saying that Bt cotton was a failure. And in Maharashtra, Bt cotton failed in the farm of the well-known and much respected social worker and environmentalist Baba Amte. Incidentally, this crop was monitored by scientists from the adjoining agriculture university. What more evidence is required now.
The monumental failure of the first GM crop to have been released in India and that too in the very first year of its commercial release --- what Devinder Sharma had referred earlier as the 'biggest scientific fraud' since Independence --- calls for a criminal investigation. It is high time the country holds the scientists (who approved the Bt seeds) accountable for the debacle. Scientists can no longer be allowed to play with the lives of poor and subsistence farmers. Already more than 10,000 cotton growers have taken the fatal route to escape the humiliation that comes from increasing indebtedness -- a direct consequence of faulty scientific advise.
Environment Minister T.R. Baalu had misled Parliament in December 2002 when he made a statement saying that 'Bt cotton was a success". Investigations need also to be launched into the role of regulatory bodies, including the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) and the Department of Biotechnology. Some NGOs had earlier asked for an enquiry by the chief vigilance commissioner into the working of these two departments/bodies.
Hyderabad, Mar 03 - It was hailed as one of the biggest advances in Indian agriculture. However, there are now clear indicators that the genetically modified Bt cotton has been a failure at least in Andhra Pradesh. Farmers in Andhra Pradesh grew Bt cotton crop on 8,000 acres last year. The genetically modified crop with in-built pest resistance was expected to reduce heavy input cost on pesticides and also increase yield.
But the state government says farmers aren't getting the yields they were promised and the poor quality of the crop also fetches a lower price in the market.
"Overall information is that the farmers have not experienced very positive and encouraging results," remarked V S Rao, Agriculture Minister, Andhra Pradesh.
Jaipal Reddy, a cotton farmer from Warangal district, says Bt cotton has fetched up to Rs 200 less per quintal because the quality was inferior.
"The sprays are less, but the farmers are very unhappy about the size of the bolls," said Jaipal Reddy, Chairman, Cotton Committee.
Advocates of Bt cotton say drought conditions are also to blame for the decreased yield. "It has definitely helped in reducing pesticide use. But whether it has given sufficient yield or not is a different question. Bt cotton by and large is supposed to have irrigation facilities," said Chengal Reddy, Farmers' Activist.
Despite the unimpressive performance of Bt cotton, the Andhra Pradesh government is still open minded about genetically modified crops, as the government believes that biotechnology has tremendous potential to improve crop productivity.
source: http://www.sunnt.com/news/regional/andhra/andhra.asp?id3D7242 4mar03
Warangal/New Delhi, 04 February 2003: The official verdict is out - V S Rao, Minister for Agriculture, Government of Andhra Pradesh has declared that Bt Cotton farmers have not experienced very positive and encouraging results. Raja Mouli, a farmer of Nagaram Village, Warangal District, now curses the temptation that led him to experiment with Bt Cotton, "The official report has only confirmed what I knew all along. I have experienced the failure of the crop first-hand. Now that the truth is out, I want other farmers to be saved from this disaster - the government should stop these criminal companies at least in time for the next season."
In personal interviews with Greenpeace, Agricultural Officers from Warangal district have confirmed that Bt Cotton has been a near complete failure. In Parakala, for instance, a whopping 95 percent of Bt Cotton farmers have reported losses, similarly in Chityal. Ironically, Bt Cotton was promoted as an alternative in Warangal which was showcased as one of the hotbeds for excessive usage of pesticides and farmer suicides. The picture that is now emerging proves otherwise.
P Damoder, Secretary of Sarvodaya Youth Organisation, Warangal, adds, "The government must force the company to pay compensation. The farmers in this district cannot take these setbacks - any further deceit at the hands of companies like Mahyco-Monsanto is sure to instigate a fresh spate of farmer suicides. It is very urgent that the government steps in to stop the ongoing 'bookings' for Bollgard (Bt Cotton seeds) and prevent the aggressive false publicity that the company is indulging in. They may have more money, but it is up to us, and our government, to see that the farmers know the truth about Bt Cotton failures."
Greenpeace has been campaigning at the state, national and international level to call for a complete rejection of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), Bt Cotton prime amongst the crops that are crippling the farmers agronomically, and putting the ecology at risk too. Earlier this year, they sought to bring the matter to the attention of the Minister for Environment and Forests, Mr. T.R. Baalu. They confronted him with evidence that his statement to the Parliament, stating that Bt Cotton had shown a 'satisfactory' performance, was a complete lie - and offered him video testimonies directly from farmers.
"At that time, the Hon'ble Minister's preposterous response was that farmers 'tend to lie.' He brushed aside the testimonies we presented. Now that the truth is official, the Central Government has no choice but to pay heed to the farmers, or to the state government officials now corroborating ourstand," says Divya Raghunandan, GE Campaigner, Greenpeace India. "If the Hon'ble Minister remains unconvinced even after the Andhra Pradesh government's acknowledgement of the truth, we will have to question his motives."
Greenpeace India and Sarvodaya Youth Organisation today held the first in a series of village-level workshops to facilitate informed discussions amongst farmers on GE technologies, the hazards therein, and the alternatives available. Today's workshop, in Kapulakanaparthy village, Warangal District, was attended by more than 70 farmers from four villages, who shared disturbingly similar experiences of Bt Cotton failure.
Kavitha Kuruganti, Sustainable Agriculture Campaigner, Greenpeace India, says, "It is high time that the government supported well-established, safer non-GE or non-pesticide alternatives to cotton farming. We demand that Mr. T.R. Baalu withdraw his statement and accept the all-round failure of Bt Cotton. Greenpeace also calls upon Members of Parliament to question the government on this, so that the truth is publicly known."
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