http://www.dnaindia.com/Ten yrs later, NGOs claim Bt cotton is all hype nothing else
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_ten-yrs-later-ngos-claim-bt-cotton-is-all-hype-nothing-else_1665163-all
**Kishor Tiwari of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, said, “The fact is that the crisis of cotton farmers in Maharashtra has only become deeper after the adoption of Bt cotton. This year, we estimate that Bt cotton farmers have lost Rs 10,000 crores due to crop failure. Even the government compensation of Rs 2,000 crores is quite small considering the loss. It is an irony that the state government is compensating for the failure of private company seeds.”**
Claiming that Bt Cotton has not revolutionised country’s cotton production as promised, a group of NGOs on Tuesday demanded from central government a comprehensive and independent review of 10 years its use.
They also asked for a special discussion in Parliament on cotton farmers’ crisis and 10 years of Bt cotton and a special parliamentary committee to look into the issue.
The group of NGOs that came under the ‘Coalition for GM-Free India’ banner claimed in a report released here that hype around Bt cotton is wrong.
They said a close examination of the government’s own data for the last 10 years negates the two important claims of dramatic yield increase and significant fall in pesticide usage.
The report states that opposite to the promise of high cotton yield, Bt cotton has resulted in stagnant yields, pest resistance, new pest and disease attacks.
“The real yield gains in the past decade (from 278 kg/ha to 470 kg/ha) happened from 2000-01 to 2004-05, when Bt cotton area had reached only 5.6% of the total cotton area. From 2005-06 to 2011-12, when the Bt cotton area grew to exceed 90% of the total cotton area, there is no sustained yield gain - only going from 470 kg/ha to 481 kg/ha,” said Kiran Vissa, co-convener of the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture.
“It is the pre-Bt cotton yield gains that have proved to be stable, resulting from various factors including fresh land brought under cotton cultivation, expansion of irrigation and use of high-yielding hybrids,” he said.
It said rather than usage of pesticide going down due to the use of Bt Cotton, it has instead increased slowly in the last few years.
The study comes nearly a week ahead of the 10th anniversary of the introduction of Bt Cotton.
The activists said in Andhra Pradesh, state government estimates show that out of 47 lakh acres planted with Bt cotton during 2011 Kharif season, the crop failed in 33.73 lakh acres (71% of the area). The state government reported that 20.46 lakh farmers suffered from cotton crop failure and lost Rs 3,071.6 crores.
Kishor Tiwari of the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, said, “The fact is that the crisis of cotton farmers in Maharashtra has only become deeper after the adoption of Bt cotton. This year, we estimate that Bt cotton farmers have lost Rs 10,000 crores due to crop failure. Even the government compensation of Rs 2,000 crores is quite small considering the loss. It is an irony that the state government is compensating for the failure of private company seeds.”
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