The Hindu Business Line : GEAC approves 6 Bt cotton strains for N. India

THE Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) on Friday approved the commercial cultivation of six genetically-modified (GM) Bt cotton hybrids developed for the northern region by Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Ltd (Mahyco), Rasi Seeds Private Ltd and Ankur Seeds.

The six Bt hybrids — genetically-engineered to provide `in-built' resistance to the dreaded American bollworm — that were cleared at GEAC's meeting here were MRC-6301 and MRC-6304 of the Jalna-based Mahyco, RCH-134 and RCH-138 of the Coimbatore-based Rasi Seeds and Ankur-651 and Ankur-2534 of the Nagpur-based Ankur Seeds.

With this, a total of 10 Bt cotton hybrids have been approved for commercial cultivation in the country. The process began with three hybrids of Mahyco (Mech-162, Mech-184 and Mech-12) being granted the commercial nod on March 26, 2002, followed by the approval given to RCH-2 of Rasi Seeds on April 1, last year. All the four Bt hybrids were given approval for cultivation in Central and Southern India.

The approval for the six hybrids given at the GEAC's meeting today would mean that the growers in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan will also be able to legally sow Bt cotton from the ensuing 2005 kharif season.

During the current (2004) season, a total area of 13 lakh acres in the country were covered under Bt cotton, as against 2.30 lakh acres in 2003 and 72,000 acres in 2002.

Currently, a 450 gram packet of Bt cotton, which can be sown in an acre, is being sold at Rs 1,600, which, for 13 lakh acres, corresponds to a business of around Rs 208 crore.

The all-India area under cotton is now about 90 lakh hectares (220 lakh acres), of which roughly half or 100 lakh acres comes under hybrids. It is estimated that roughly 40 per cent of the total area under hybrids can potentially be sown under Bt versions, which translates into 40 lakh packets every year worth Rs 640 crore.

A significant chunk of these revenues would go to the US life sciences major, Monsanto, which holds the licence for `Bollgard', the specific gene construct incorporated in all the commercially grown Bt cotton hybrids.

The hyrbids basically contain a gene derived from a soil bacteria, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which codes for a protein that has found to be lethal against the Heliothis insect species, including American bollworm.

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