The governments of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, which are among the top cotton-growing States, have asked the Union government to revoke the patent given to Monsanto on Bollgard II technology to safeguard the interests of farmers.
Agriculture Ministers of both the States wrote letters recently to Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitaraman, stating that the Centre must intervene to break the monopoly created by the seed firm.
“We have received representations from seed companies saying they received termination letters (from Mahyco Monsanto Biotech Limited). This would mean stoppage of technology transfer to the seed firms,” P Pulla Rao, Minister for Agriculture (Andhra Pradesh), has said.
Monsanto licences the Bollgard II technology to MMBL (a joint venture with Mahyco), which in turn, sub-licences it to the seed companies in the country. The seed firms deploy the gene into their respective hybrids and sell it to the farmers.
“The termination of the agreements just before the commencement of the season could have disastrous effects and could lead to shortage of seeds. The company’s decision to terminate the agreement is arbitrary,” he said.
Citing the report of Central Institute of Cotton Research, he said the pink bollworm developed resistance to the BG-II technology. “I request you to revoke the patent so that farmers need not pay any royalty on a technology which has become obsolete and ineffective,” he said.
Telangana Agriculture Minister P Srinivas Reddy too has written a letter raising similar issues raised by his Andhra Pradesh counterpart.