Date:13/09/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/09/13/stories/2007091359361100.htm

National

‘Maharashtra farmers got better yields with Bt cotton technology’

Special Correspondent

MUMBAI: As agrarian crisis-ridden farmers continued to commit suicide in Maharashtra others burnt effigies of Union Textiles Minister, Shankersinh Vaghela, a trade association came out with a survey claiming that farmers had earned an additional income of Rs. 4,086 crore with the adoption of Bt cotton technology.

“Better yields, reduction in pesticide sprays and higher profits are identified as the biggest benefits from the introduction of Bt cotton,” says the All-India Crop Biotechnology Association, a body of 15 seeds companies engaged in selling and developing Bt cotton hybrids for Vidharbha region, citing a nation-wide survey done by the IMRB International.

“The IMRB study has shown that Vidharbha Bt Cotton farmers earned incremental net revenue of Rs. 8,588 for an acre which transforms into a benefit of 540 per cent in additional gross revenue over conventional cotton farmers and is well above the all India average of Rs. 7,757 and Bt cotton farmers achieved 107 per cent higher average yield in Vidharbha as compared to 94 per cent higher in [rest of] Maharashtra, 83 per cent in West and 50 per cent all India,” the association says in a press note.

It further claims that the total pesticide spent by the Maharashtra farmers was 1.41 times higher for conventional cotton over Bt cotton, resulting in reduced use of pesticides to the tune of Rs. 3,838 million in the State. The survey had covered 6,000 farmers in nine cotton-growing States including 993 farmers in the Vidharbha region of Maharashtra.

“Ridiculous claims”

“These claims are ridiculous,” the Vidarbha Jan Andholan Samiti leader, Kishore Tiwari told The Hindu in a telephonic interview from Yavatmal. He said that the Bt cotton had worked only in irrigated areas and not the rain-fed region of Vidharbha. “Actually the cost has doubled and the yield has halved,” he said.

The samiti has moved several fora, including the Nagpur bench of the Mumbai High Court to demand a ban on Bt cotton. A survey by the Maharashtra government covering all 17 lakh families engaged in farming in the six crisis districts of the region, had found earlier that nearly 70 per cent of them were in distress due to crop failure and crop losses.