GE Crops in India - The Story of BT Cotton

When cotton farming was introduced as a lucrative alternative to food crops in the 1980s, farmers invested in expensive varieties of seeds and pesticides. This put small farmers in conditions of severe indebtedness, often driving them to suicide. The spate of suicides that began from Andhra Pradesh, first in 1987 and then again in 1998-99, have so far taken a heavy toll, spreading to Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab. This desperate situation was caused basically by the resistance the American bollworm insect developed, to all kinds of pesticides and pesticide cocktails. Farmers found themselves on a “pesticide treadmill' where higher pesticide use led to greater resistance which in turn led to even higher pesticide use, an so on. Today we find 55% of all pesticide use in India is used on the cotton crop! The intial claims that Bt cotton plant would be resistant to the bollworm, leading to decreased pesticide use have been proved false.

Two Important points to keep in mind:

The GE technology of Bt Cotton cannot directly increase yields

It also does not affect a whole class of secondary pests, which are immune to the Bt toxin.

Environmental Dangers

Increased Pest Resistivity:
As the insects feeding on the Bt crops are exposed to the toxin regularly, unlike in the case of Bt sprays where the plants are exposed to intense concentrations for short periods of time, they are likely to develop a stronger and quicker resistance to the toxin. If this happens, both the genes in transgenic plants and Bt sprays will be rendered ineffective. This makes the effective life of a Bt crop not more than 2 to 3 years.

The evidence
Researchers at the Institute of Plant Protection in China showed that after 12 to 13 generations the toxin was ineffective when used on the bollworm.

Gene flow to wild relatives:
As Bt crops are grown close to their wild relatives, it is highly possible that the Bt gene can spread to the wild relatives through pollen transfer. The new genes in the wild plants may produce enough toxins to ward off insects that normally feed on them. Some of the wild plants could grow hardier and act as weeds in the fields. This technology also leads to contamination of other species, as the transgenic plants displace other plants.

The evidence
Though examples on Bt cotton have not yet been documented there is evidence to show that pollen transfer occurs freely between mustard plants (oil seed rape).

Inability to address complexity of pest attack: Farmers still need to use pesticides. Bt Cotton produces a toxin, which is effective against the bollworm and other lepidopteron pests. However there are a number of other secondary pests (a total estimate of 160). In the absence of bollworm, they act as primary pests.

The evidence
Researchers at the Institute of Plant Protection in China, found that in Bt Cotton fields while the was a decrease in the bollworm populations, there was an increase in the incidence of pests as there was a marked decrease in the diversity of insect pest populations.

Economic Dangers

The total input cost is higher with no increase in yield:
The cost of a packet of Bt Cotton this season is Rs. 1600 as compared to the non-Bt hybrid that costs between Rs. 380 to Rs 460. This is because seed costs are higher. Also since the Bt Cotton plant is not effective in controlling secondary pests like the white mosquito, aphids and other sucking pests, more pesticides have to be used, escalating total input costs

Regulatory Anarchy

In October 2001, much before the approval was given for the commercial release of Bt Cotton, Mahyco discovered commercial Bt Cotton farming in Gujarat. The source of the cotton was traced back to Navbharat Seeds Private Ltd. While the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee ordered that the fields be burnt to control the spread of the potentially dangerous crop, this was not done.
A few months after the commercial release of Bt Cotton, a Greenpeace investigation and subsequent press reports confirmed that Bt Cotton was growing illegally in Punjab. (Punjab was not among the 6 states that had approval for the commercial release of Bt Cotton)

The government and the company have remained silent, as the irreversible and uncontrolled spread of Bt Cotton continues.