The Hindu Business Line : Bt cotton area set to rise 75 pc next season

The galloping Bt cotton growing tracts in the country may see another surge in acreage next season starting October, when the acreage under the genetically-modified crop strain is expected to go up to 140-150 lakh acres from the current 86 lakh acres. It will be a 75 per cent jump in the crop coverage, according to Mr M Ramasami, Managing Director of Rasi Seeds (P) Ltd.

The factors that would push up the Bt seeds use are the continued improvement in the per acre yield that raises the overall value realisation for the farmers and the moderation achieved in the seed price, which has settled at Rs 750 a packet of 450 gm this season.

Nowhere in the world, a single cotton season has seen such a huge jump in Bt seed coverage as in India, where the area under GM seed more than doubled from 31 lakh acres in 2005-06 to 86 lakh acres in this season, Mr Ramasami told Business Line.

Pricing

As for the pricing of the Bt cotton, especially in arriving at the trait value payable to the US plant science company, Monsanto, for the technology, he said though no final word had emerged on freezing the seed price, no consensus had been reached among the licensees on final price tag or the trait value. The price may be kept in the Rs 750-900 band. "We feel it has to settle at the current levels, considering cost of production incurred by the seed companies," Mr Ramasami added.

The licensee-companies may not be able to increase the price as there would be huge hybrid seed production next year as the number of the Bt seed club members would go up with more players likely to get permission for their seed programme from the Centre's Genetic Engineering Approval Committee.

SUB-LICENSEES

Indications are that the number of sub-licensees producing Bt cotton would rise to 22. The companies may not be slashing the price below Rs 750 as the higher production costs, including that of manpower needed to be deployed for the hybrid seed development keep surging. The cost of knowledge workers deployed by the Bt seed producers, say the agri graduates/diploma holders in large numbers in hybridisation programme, has gone up 30-40 per cent in the last one year and the seed companies feel the heat on this, he said.

Rasi Seeds has during 2006-07 distributed commercial Bt cottons in north, central and southern cotton zones and its share of Bt cotton production during the season works out to 27 per cent (or 26 lakh tonnes) of all-India total Bt cotton production.

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

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