2009-07-28 | permalink

Dependence on Bt cotton is now total in Vidarbha (India)

When it was introduced in 2002, the genetically modified Bt cotton seed was greeted with distrust by farmers which was anyway then out of reach for Vidarbha’s poor dryland cultivator because of its prohibitive cost of over Rs 1000 per bag of 450 grams. Today, almost every cotton grower in the 32 lakh-hectare cotton belt of Vidarbha and Marathwada has shifted to Bt seed. Maharashtra actually gave approval for commercial trials of Bt seeds in 2005. That year, less Bt seeds were sown in less than 4 lakh hectares. But the area under genetically modified seed multiplied magically in the last three years and farm sources say now the dependence on it is total.

• The Times of India, India: Dependence on Bt cotton is now total
• The Indian Express, India: Mealybug species, the Bt cotton killer, is exotic: Experts