The Hindu Business Line : Bt cotton field study reveals mixed picture

Two sides of the coin
Phenomenal turnaround from importer to exporter attributed by a section to Bt cotton
Critics dismiss it as purely coincidental and cite the reason as favourable monsoon

Harish Damodaran

New Delhi, Aug. 29 Between 2002-03 and 2006-07, India’s cotton output has nearly doubled from 136 lakh bales (of 170 kg) to 270 lakh bales and is expected to reach a new high of 310 lakh bales this year. In the process, from being a net importer of some 25 lakh bales, the country has turned a net exporter of 45 lakh bales.

Area expansion

There are those who attribute this phenomenal turnaround to Bt cotton, which, since its introduction in 2002-03, has seen an expansion in area from 50,000 hectares to 38 lakh hectares in 2006-07 and 55 lakh hectares plus this year. Bt hybrids now account for roughly two-thirds of the country’s total cotton area.

‘Coincidental’

But there are critics, especially from green groups, who dismiss this linkage as purely coincidental. The production increase, they say, has more to do with favourable monsoons and not any real yield breakthrough, courtesy Bt cotton. What the ‘truth’ is can obviously be ascertained only from the ground.

For the first time, there is a detailed, and seemingly neutral, field study — based on primary data collected from a carefully chosen sample of 180 farmers — that gives a more nuanced picture of the “Economics of Bt Cotton vis-À-vis Traditional Cotton Varieties”.

The 180 farmers in the study, undertaken by the Andhra University’s Agro-Economic Research Centre at Visakhapatnam, have been selected from six villages of Guntur and Warangal through a four-stage sample design.

The choice of districts is representative, given that Guntur is a traditional cotton-growing area with one of the highest yields and pesticide consumption levels in India. Warangal, by contrast, is a relatively new cotton belt, where the crop is mostly cultivated under irrigated conditions.

NET INCOME

The study clearly establishes Bt cotton yields to be higher than that for non-Bt hybrids/varieties under both irrigated and non-irrigated conditions, and this holds irrespective of landholding size. Average net incomes from Bt hybrids, too, work out higher across small, medium and large farmers. Bt cotton has also been found highly resistant against bollworm pest attacks.

But on the flip side, the reduction in pesticide consumption has not been to the extent claimed by seed companies.

Sprays decline

While the number of sprays has come down, it has been somewhat offset by farmers injecting more quantity of pesticides per spray. Secondly, the performance of Bt cotton has varied depending on the hybrid into which the gene has been inserted. Farmers in the study have, for instance, reported a marked preference for the Bt hybrids of Rasi Seeds over that of Mahyco. Thus, for the Bt gene to express its true potential, the choice of parental background material is something companies can ill-afford to ignore.

More Stories on : Bio-tech & Genetics | Cotton | Cultivation

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