Nearly a Million Illegal HT Cotton Seeds Sown this Kharif Season
As per the Delhi-based South Asia Biotechnology Centre (SABC), about 35 lakh packets of illegal HT cotton hybrids were sold this kharif season across Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra, Odisha, Karnataka, and MP. Around 8.5 lakh hectares, or 7% of the total cotton growing area in the country, is under the illegal HT cultivation.
Right now, the only GM cotton permitted to be grown in India are hybrids/varieties that contain ‘cry1Ac’ and ‘cry2Ab’ genes, isolated from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) and coding for proteins toxic to bollworm insect pests. The government hasn’t so far approved cultivation of cotton harboring other GM traits, including resistance to specific herbicides.
In normal cotton, spraying of herbicide is not possible once the plant has emerged out of the soil, as the chemical cannot distinguish between weeds and the crop itself. But with cotton that is genetically engineered to ‘tolerate’ herbicide application – through the introduction of another alien gene, this time coding for a protein inhibiting the action of that chemical – only the weeds, not the crop, get killed.
The fact that Indian farmers are now growing HT cotton, albeit illegally
, has been officially proved by tests reports from at least two government research institutions.In the current Kharif sowing season, farmers bought and planted close to 3.5 million packets, which amounts to an Rs 450-crore market for unapproved GM cotton seeds at an average price of Rs 1,300 per packet, of cotton seeds that incorporate unapproved “herbicide tolerance”, or HT, technology.
This development comes at a time when BT cotton’s efficacy has fallen. Over the years, BT cotton’s resistance to pink boll worm (PBW) has reduced and during the last season alone the pest has caused 20-25 per cent loss to the crop across states. This year, the loss could go up, which lead to a major agrarian crisis, experts could say.
To overcome this problem, the Union government has recommended a unique RIB (Refugia in Bag) concept, wherein 25 grams of non-Bt cotton seed is mixed with 450 grams of BT cotton seeds. This enables the planting of non-BT cotton, which can host PBW wild insects and prevent resistance build-up in PBW.
The farmers in question paid between Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,500 per packet for these unapproved cotton seeds, a price much higher than the Rs 800 government-fixed maximum sale price for a packet of approved Bt cotton hybrids. Even then, farmers appear to have placed a premium on the unapproved cotton hybrid’s ability to resist the ill-effects of herbicides. For normal cotton, the report explained, farmers cannot spray herbicides once the plant has emerged from the soil since the chemical cannot differentiate between weeds and the crop itself.
Test reports from at least two government research institutions, the Nagpur-based Central Institute for Cotton Research and the Telangana government’s DNA Fingerprinting & Transgenic Crops Monitoring Laboratory at Hyderabad, have officially shown that Indian farmers are illegally growing HT cotton
SABC founder and President CD Mayee said that he had obtained some HT cotton samples about four years ago and got them tested for the presence of glyphospate toler ant gene. The SABC then wrote to the Centre’s Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) about the illegal sale and cultivation of HT cotton on September 5 this year. Through it, the body appealed to the central and the state governments to seriously look into the issue of rampant illegal and spurious sale of HT cotton, locate.
Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavlamban Mission Chairman Kishore Tiwari said, “This is a very shocking revelation and needs a detailed probe into the functioning of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR) since they are responsible to check the illegal sales.”
Tiwari pointed out that the HT cotton hybrid sale was rampant even after it was brought to the notice of the central government and other agencies, besides the concerned states, and the deadly effects as seen in Maharashtra.
His demand came close on the heels of Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Pandurang Phundkar’s call for a ban on the HT genetically modified cotton seeds.
Tiwari cited reports that though such HT cotton hybrids are being grown in USA, Brazil and some other countries since 1998, it has not been technically and formally approved in India so far, thus rendering its cultivation completely illegal.
“The casual attitude of these departments, their officials and the states’ agriculture departments need a thorough CBI probe,” Tiwari urged.
According to some reports, the global giant Monsanto, which owns the HT trait found in CICR samples, has claimed it has informed the GEAC about it since 2008 and most recently in August 2017.
“Yet, the GEAC has turned a blind eye to the issue, pointing to a larger involvement of regulatory bodies which needs to be scanned properly by different experts,” Tiwari concluded.
