HTBt cotton seeds doubles "EMPOWER IAS"

Context: 

• Industry lobbies have written to the Agriculture Ministry, demanding that action be taken to stop the sale of illegal seed packets.

 

Background:

• This comes even as activists from the Shetkari Sangathan have stepped up the reach of their civil disobedience movement to demand the legalisation of HTBt cotton by encouraging farmers to plant the seeds in violation of government regulations.

 

More in the news:

• The illegal cultivation of herbicide-tolerant (HT) Bt cotton has seen a huge jump in 2021.
  • The seed manufacturers claim that the sale of illegal seed packets has more than doubled from 30 lakh in 2020 to 75 lakh in 2021.
• The cultivation of the genetically modified cotton variant has serious environmental and economic consequences.
• To make matters worse, the illegal seeds are sold using the brand name of prominent companies.

 

Impact of such sale:

• Farmers are at risk with such illegal cotton seed sale as: 
  • There is no accountability of the quality of seed, 
  • It pollutes the environment, 
  • The industry is losing legitimate seed sale and 
  • The government also loses revenue in terms of tax collection.
• It will not only decimate small cotton seed companies but also threatens the entire legal cotton seed market in India.

Perpetrators:

• This illegal activity of HT seed sales is carried mostly by unorganised and fly by night operators.
• HTBt seeds are often produced in Gujarat and then moved to Maharashtra for illegal sale.

 

BT Cotton

• Bt cotton remains the only GM crop allowed to be cultivated in the country.
• Developed by US giant Bayer-Monsanto, it involves insertion of two genes viz ‘Cry1Ab’ and ‘Cry2Bc’ from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis into cotton seeds.
• This modification codes the plant to produce protein toxic to Heliothis bollworm (pink bollworm) thus making it resistant to their attack.
• The commercial release of this hybrid was sanctioned by the government in 2002.

 

Approval in India

• In India, it is the responsibility of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) under the MoEFCC to assess the safety of a genetically modified plant, and decide whether it is fit for cultivation.
• The GEAC comprises experts and government representatives, and a decision it takes has to be approved by the Environment Minister before any crop is allowed for cultivation.
• Besides Bt cotton, the GEAC has cleared two other genetically modified crops — brinjal and mustard — but these have not received the consent of the MoEFCC.

 

 

History of Bt. Cotton

• Cotton has been woven and used in India for thousands of years.
• Cotton fabric from around 3,000 BCE has been excavated from the ruins of Mohenjo-daro, and archaeological findings in Mehrgarh, Pakistan, show that cotton was used in the subcontinent as far back as 5,000 BCE.
• Much of the cotton cultivated until the 20th century in India was of the indigenous ‘desi’ variety, Gossypium arboreum.
• From the 1990s, hybrid varieties of G. hirsutum were promoted.
• These hybrids cannot resist a variety of local pests and require more fertilizers and pesticides. Cotton suffers from plenty of infestation from moth pests such as the Pink Bollworm (PBW) and sap-sucking pests such as aphids and mealy bugs.
• Rising debts and reducing yields, coupled with increasing insect resistance, worsened the plight of cotton farmers.
• It was in this setting that Bt cotton was introduced in India in 2002.

 

Adoption of Bt. Cotton

• According to the Ministry of Agriculture, from 2005, adoption of Bt cotton rose to 81% in 2007, and up to 93% in 2011.
• Many short-duration studies examining Bt cotton, in the early years, pronounced that Bt was a panacea for dwindling yields and pesticide expenses.

 

 

Cotton crops in India:

• Cotton is an important fibre crop of India. It is one of the most important industrial crops in India.
• The highest concentration of the crop is in the areas with precipitation between 50 to 80 cm and a temperature between 20 to 35°C. 
•  Cotton can be grown in drier areas, too, with the help of irrigation.
• The deep and medium black soils of the Deccan and Malwa Plateau are considered ideal though they can be grown on alluvial and red soils as well.
• The clear sky during the picking season is ideal for cotton crops.
• The largest producers of Cotton are Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, MP, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, TN and Karnataka.
•  India has the distinction of developing the first high breed of cotton in the world.
• Presently, India is also one of the leading producers of Bt cotton in the world.