INDIA: MP COTTON BT

MP's cotton trend: enter Bt, exit all else

More than a decade after Bt cotton was approved for commercial cultivation in the country, Madhya Pradesh has almost shunned other seed varieties of cotton despite conflicting reports about falling yields and the reservations of the state government.

The area under Bt cultivation, which MP farmers first took up 11 years ago, rose rapidly in the initial years, though it now appears to have settled in the range of 6 lakh hectares. The figures are at odds with the state government's claims about making efforts to promote non-Bt cotton. The last state economic survey, in fact, does not even cite figures for non-Bt varieties.

MP has an organic farming policy in place and the BJP government is opposed to genetically modified crops. It has already banned field trials and has written to the Centre registering its protest against the proposed Agriculture Bio-security Bill and Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India.

But the ideological opposition has neither helped wean farmers away from Bt cotton, which activists usually slam for being toxic, nor seen affinity growing towards non-Bt varieties. Dr S K Rao of the Jawaharlal Nehru Agriculture University says farmers prefer Bt cotton seeds because they give higher yields and reduce input costs by cutting down on the use of pesticide.

Head of the directorate of research services, Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia Agriculture University, Gwalior, Dr H S Yadav says that the demand for nuclear and breeder seeds of non-Bt varieties is almost nil. "Occasionally, some farmer turns up and demands two or four kg," he says. He adds that though the area under cultivation has grown up, productivity has come down.

Jabalpur University was tasked by the state government to develop non-Bt varieties after sensing the onslaught of Bt cotton. It developed Jawahar Cotton-4 and Jawahar Cotton-5 varieties and got them registered with the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority, but has not succeeded in making them popular.

Agriculture Minister Ramkrishna Kusmaria, a votary of swadeshi, was at a loss to elaborate what benefits the state's organic policy has brought farmers while responding to a question in the assembly's recent session. In fact, the state government readily provided the acreage under Bt cotton but could not provide the details of cultivation of organic cotton in the state.

Under the centrally sponsored Mini-Mission-II of Technology Mission on Cotton, three exhibitions to demonstrate high-density planting systems are being set up in three districts to promote non-Bt cotton. The government is, however, keeping its fingers crossed on their success. Only 36 farmers in MP have registered for organic farming in 2013-14.

"The choice is between one Bt cotton variety and another," says Nilesh Desai of Hamara Beej Abhiyan and Beej Swaraj Abhiyan, MP, alleging that the non-Bt varieties have already gone out of the market because agriculture universities and bureaucrats toe the line of multinational seed companies.

The NGO had last year brought a report on a decade of Bt cotton in the state and insisted that use of pesticide had not reduced. The report argued that yields had already started to increase before Bt cotton arrived on the scene. In the first couple of years of Bt cotton, productivity increased but came down later, the report claimed.

Desai says there are as many as 40 varieties of Bt cotton seeds being sold by private companies in the state. Since farmers have stopped asking for non-Bt cotton seeds, companies have stopped producing them, he says, alleging that multinational companies are dictating terms to governments and bureaucrats.

Bharatiya Kisan Sangh president Suresh Gurjar claims cultivation of Bt cotton in the Nimad region of MP has come down this year while agreeing that the use of desi varieties is almost over. "When Gujarat farmers could develop Bt varieties, why can't governments and universities follow suit?" he says. He alleges that agriculture research studies are generally commercial in nature and promote the interest of multinationals. INDIAN EXPRESS