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Contact:
Dr. Suman Sahai
Phone:+91 11 29556248 Email:
genecamp@vsnl.com
29 July 2005
New Bt Cotton Report Shows Indian Bt Technology Faulty,
Validates Gene Campaign's Field Observations
A new report
published by scientists at the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR),
Nagpur, in the 25 July issue of Current Science, validates many of the
observations made by Gene Campaign during three years of field studies on
Bt cotton cultivation. The study conducted at India's premier cotton
research institution gives the scientific reasons for the failure of the
Monsanto Bt cotton varieties and shows that India's Bt cotton technology
itself is faulty and will fail to protect cotton farmers from the
bollworm. The study recommends additional pesticide sprays since the Bt
technology fails to provide adequate protection.
Dr Suman Sahai
said that the principal findings of Gene Campaign's field studies have
been validated by the CICR study, like the finding that pesticide savings
are not significant in India. Gene Campaign studies had found that
protection offered by Bt cotton hybrids lasts only up to about 90 days,
after which the effect wears off. The CICR study also reports that
protection falls off after 110 days because the Bt gene does not express
properly after that. Like the GC study, also, the CICR study finds that
bollworm attack the bolls and they provide the scientific data that Bt
toxin expression was the lowest in the economically most important part of
the cotton plant, the bolls themselves.
Another feature
of the Bt cotton hybrids reported by Gene Campaign was the premature
dropping of cotton bolls. Investigations into old documents in the US
revealed that boll dropping was reported already in 1997- 98 in the US by
farmers who had cultivated Monsanto's GM cotton. Monsanto had settled
damages worth million of dollars to reimburse farmers who had suffered
losses in Mississippi, US A. This may be contrasted with Monsanto-Mahyco
brash arrogance in India where they have flatly refused to pay any
compensation to farmers who have suffered tremendous losses. As the pliant
GEAC has looked on benevolently without taking any action, the AP
government has had to resort to banning the Mahyco- Monsanto seeds from
AP, but they have not been able to force the company to reimburse losses,
like in the US.
The CICR
scientists have shown that the Indian Bt cotton technology, being used by
all agencies, is flawed. Bt cotton hybrids being produced in India were
unstable and unpredictable, the result of faulty technology in which gene
expression is variable, showing declining levels of Bt toxin in the same
season. This means that since the Bt cotton does not provide adequate
protection, farmers must use chemical pesticides to protect their crops.
This is in consonance with Gene Campaign's findings that the Mahyco-Monsanto
cotton failed to protect against bollworm, farmers had to use chemical
pesticides, hence savings on pesticide were not significant.
The CICR study
collaborates Gene Campaign's oft repeated position on another point: that
the Bt technology being used was not suited for cotton cultivation in
India since the pest profile here was very different to the pest profile
in the US. And since Bt technology was developed for the cotton pests in
the US, it was unlikely to work for us here. Now the CICR study has very
clearly shown that Bt cotton cannot be effective in India because the
major cotton pest here, the bollworm, is not susceptible to the Cry1Ac
toxin of Bt cotton. Cry1Ac works against the tobacco budworm, Heliothis
virescens which is the major pest of cotton in USA. Bt cotton varieties in
USA cause 99-100 % mortality in Heliothis, hence they are successful in
providing protection. The Cry1Ac based technology cannot ever really
succeed in India.
Further
unbundling the scientific basis for the failure of India's Bt cotton, the
CICR study suggests that poor Bt cotton performance in India is possibly
due to the fact that in India , Bt cotton is produced as a hemizygous
hybrid (gene expression in only one parent), compared to the homozygous
form of the composite varieties which are produced in other countries like
China , Australia and South Africa. Global analysis of Bt cotton
performance shows that performance is better in true breeding varieties as
compared to the hybrids, that are being produced in India. This explains
to some extent the positive reports from China.
The primary
question that Indian regulators must answer is, why are Bt cotton hybrids
being promoted, when they will force the farmer to buy seeds for every new
planting? Why did the GEAC not take the decision that only true breeding
varieties of Bt cotton would be permitted in India, not only because they
perform better but also because they would be a cheaper option for farmers
who could save seeds for the next harvest? Gene Campaign demands an
enquiry into the considerations that have prompted the GEAC to take such a
distinctly anti-farmer decision. The members of the GEAC must be held
accountable for the losses faced by farmers, leading sometimes to their
taking extreme steps.
Gene Campaign
once again raised the issue of the lack of competence in the Genetically
Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) and its inability to take any
decisions with respect to technical issues like Bt cotton. The GEAC simply
lacks the competence to understand the technical data that are presented
for evaluation. Its overwhelmingly bureaucratic composition precludes any
understanding of the subject matter which is way over the heads of the
slew of joint , additional, under and over secretaries that man this
ultimate decision making body. As the GEAC placates the big industry and
continues to release batches of Bt cotton to ever new regions of India,
without any review of past failures, nor any attempt to get compensation
for farmers who have suffered losses, civil society must question the
motivations and allegiance of this public regulatory body. It may be
recalled that Gene Campaign had earlier asked for a CBI enquiry into the
nature and process of decision making by the regulatory agencies.
What the GEAC
is doing with respect to Bt cotton amounts to criminal negligence. Its
biased decisions are resulting in debilitating losses for poor farmers,
specially in rainfed areas. Dr Sahai said Gene Campaign was waiting for
the Right to Information Act to come into effect, to force the GEAC to
make public the data on biosafety and performance tests and the basis of
decision making that is leading to all these pro-industry decisions.
Biosafety data belong in the public domain and it is illegitimate to
withhold it , as the GEAC continues to do.
Gene Campaign
demands that Bt cotton hybrids be withdrawn from the fields and a
moratorium placed on any further cultivation of Bt cotton until the
technology is vastly improved. Mahyco -Monsanto must be made to pay
compensation for losses incurred by farmers. Also, Bt cotton must be
permitted in India only in the form of true breeding varieties like is the
case in China, Australia and South Africa, not as hybrids the way industry
is pushing here. Finally Gene Campaign demands that the GEAC be disbanded
immediately and a more transparent structure with visible technical
competence put in its place. The GEAC cannot be allowed to play Lotto with
the future of India's farmers as they pander to the wishes of the
industry.
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