For first time in 14 yrs, area for Bt cotton declines

For the first time in 14 years, there has been a significant drop in the area in which the genetically modified Bt cotton is cultivated, with farmers planting it in 8,00,000 hectares less in 2016 than the year before.

“India, for the first time in the 14 years of insect-resistant (Bt) cotton planting (since 2002), has recorded a drop in the area planted, by 0.8 million hectares. The area dropped from 11.6 million hectares in 2015 to 10.8 million hectares in 2016,” said a new report on the status on genetically modified crops around the world.

The latest report from the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Application (ISAAA), a non-governmental outfit that promotes genetically modified crops, points out how 5,00,000-odd Indian farmers decided not to plant Bt cotton in 2016 because of their poor experience in the previous year.“It was estimated that around 7.2 million farmers planted insect-resistant cotton in 2016, slightly less than the  7.7 million in 2015,” it says.

The rapid adoption of Bt cotton hybrids had spurred the growth of cotton production to 39 million bales in 2014, which was followed by a slump in 2015, when the production was restricted to 33.8 million due to a heavy infestation of the cotton leaf curl virus, particularly in Haryana and Punjab.

The production had again gained an upward trend in 2016, achieving the target of 35 million bales. Bt cotton is the only genetically engineered crop that is legally permitted for cultivation in India.

Of about 1,130 Bt cotton hybrids approved for sale by the regulatory agency, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, as many as 986 hybrids are based on the Monsanto technology, illustrating the domination enjoyed by the US firm in the Indian market.

The ISAAA report points out that the Central Institute of Cotton Research, Nagpur, has developed two improved indigenous insect-resistant cotton varieties, which are being field-tested in the high density planting system in India and is waiting for commercial approval in the near future.

Though Bt cotton seeds were formally introduced in Pakistan in 2010, it has brought at least 10 genetically modified public sector cotton seeds into the market so far. Globally, the area in which genetically modified crops are planted increased rapidly in 2016 to 185.1 million hectares, against 179.7 million hectares in 2015.