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Bt technology: What does it hold for India? - I

Ashok K Mishra, Textiles Committee

Bt cotton or Bollgard cotton is one of the miracles of the genetic engineering. Earlier, cotton farmers had only chemical pesticides to fight against the pests, especially to bollworm. With the introduction of Bt cotton, there is an in-built pest control mechanism created in the cotton plant to fight against the bollworm pest. This unbelievable truth came into reality with the help of genetic engineering techniques only. The genetic engineering innovation not only reduces the consumption of pesticides but also increases the productivity of cotton by protecting the crop effectively from bollworm attack.

The history of genetic engineering is about 30 years old. Initially, it was developed to isolate a desired gene from any organism so as to insert into another organism. At that time, no one could imagine that the growth of genetically engineered crop would be surprisingly increased by more than 30 folds, from 1.7 million hectares in 1996 to 52.6 million hectares (or 130 million acres) in 2001 i.e. within the span of five years only. However, during 2001, only four countries have grown 99 per cent of the total transgenic crop of the world. These countries are the US (35.7 million hectares i.e 68 per cent of the world total), Argentina (11 million ha i.e 22 per cent of the world total), Canada (3.2 million i.e 6 per cent of the world total) and China (1.5 million i.e 3 per cent of the world total).In case of transgenic cotton (Bt cotton), it was accounted for 13 per cent (6.8 million ha) of the total world transgenic crop cultivation area and approximately 20 per cent of the total world cotton cultivation area (34 million ha) in the year 2001.

In the history of Bt cotton, the toxin gene of bacterium was isolated in 1981 and in 1990 the first Bt protected cotton crop was field tested in USA. After the verification and examination of the safety and suitability of this crop by various government regulatory agencies of USA, Bt cotton was cultivated on 1.8 million acre in 1995. In 2001, the area of cultivation of Bt cotton in USA was 16.79 million acre showing more than ninefold increase in past six years. In 1997, China took up the cultivation of Bt cotton. Then 13 other countries followed it. In March 2002, cultivation of Bt cotton was allowed in India for large scale cultivation with certain conditions. The most important aspect for Bt cotton cultivation is the availability of Bt cotton seeds to the cultivators. At present USA and China have successfully developed Bt cotton seeds indigenously but only USA have commercialised the seed distribution to other countries of the world through its major seed company, Monsanto.

What is Bt Cotton?

Bt Stands for Bacillus Thuringiensis. It is a genetically engineered variety of cotton that contains Bt gene. Bt gene is a soil bacterium used as an organic pesticide against the divesting caterpillar bollworm. Bt gene is also known as biological pesticide. In other words, Bt cotton is transgenic cotton with insect killer gene that is transferred to it from soil bacteria called Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt). This gene produces a toxic protein, which is fatal to pests, particularly to bollworm. Thus cotton crop is effectively protected from the attack of bollworm.

So far as the quality of Bt Cotton is concerned, it resembles with a good variety of non-Bt cotton. This is because the transgenic insect resistant cotton is produced only by introducing insect resistant gene into the original cotton. It does not change the original properties of carrier plant. The carrier plant that is transformed into transgenic Bt plant is already of fine variety. So it resembles the many fine varieties of cotton.

In terms of variety, there are various varieties of Bt cotton like the American DPL Series (Xinimian 33B 32, and 9B), the Zhongmian Series (ZM 29,30,32 and 36), the Gnokan Series (GK-12, GM-26, SGK-321), etc. In India only three varieties of Bt cotton have been approved i.e MECH-12 MECH-162 and MECH-184.

Benefit of Bt cotton cultivation

• The major benefit of Bt cotton cultivation is the reduction in the use of pesticides, which thereby, reduces the cost of cultivation. Since it reduces the use of pesticides thereby minimising the chemical pollution of soil and atmosphere, it is recognised as environment friendly or Eco-friendly. In the non-Bt cotton cultivation, generally, 15 rounds of spray of chemicals are required in a season to control the pest especially the bollworm. But in case of Bt cotton crop only 3 rounds of spray of chemicals are considered enough. The cost of chemicals for a single round of spray is around Rs 300 per hectare. It means that more than Rs 3,500 could be saved per hectare if Bt cotton is cultivated. In India, cotton cultivation area is only 5 per cent of the total agricultural area but it consumes around 50 per cent of the total pesticides used for all the crops. In value terms the cost of pesticides used for non-Bt cotton cultivation is around Rs 2,000 crores.
• Besides this, the yield increases by 30 per cent by better protection from the pests. The increase in productivity consequently increases the income of cotton farmers significantly.
• In addition to the above, the studies indicate that a considerable extent of manpower is saved through reduced spray of pesticides in Bt cotton cultivation as compared to other varieties.
• Bt cotton technology also reduces the amount of exposure and risk involved in purchasing, transporting, mixing and spraying the insecticide (for caterpillar control) to the workers or cultivators of cotton.

Status of Bt cotton in India

In India, cotton farming is viewed to be one of the expensive farming practices. It requires huge money mainly to purchase large quantity of pesticides to spray (in order to save the crop from pest attack), because 80 per cent of the total expenditure of non-Bt cotton cultivation goes to pesticides or chemicals only. In India the economic condition of cotton farmers is not very good so the failure of cotton crop in a season breaks the backbone of their economy. Sometimes failure of cotton crop damages their economy so badly that compelled in some cases to take extreme step like suicide. Such type of cases have already been reported from the various part of the country. It reveals that cotton farmers are taking the high risk in cotton cultivation under the threat of pest attack especially the bollworm attack. This risk could be minimised by using Bt cotton seeds for cotton cultivation. This might be one of the main reasons as to why the government has allowed the Bt cotton cultivation on large scale in India.

In the first of such government clearances, GEAC (Genetic Engineering Approval Committee) has permitted Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company (Mahyco) to commercially release three of four varieties of genetically-modified hybrid cotton i.e Bt Cotton developed by the US-based major seed company Monsanto. The approved varieties are MECH-12, MECH-162 and MECH-184. The decision on the fourth variety MECH-195 has been deferred due to some administrative reasons. The approval is for a period of three years starting from April 2002 to March 2005. The approval is given under certain conditions such as detailed data collection and cultivation under controlled condition with continuous monitoring. Before the marketing of Bt cotton seeds to the cultivators, Mahyco has signed agreement with GEAC and also conducted field trial of these seeds.

Cultivation of Bt cotton in India

In India, Mahyco backed by Monsanto company has been supplying packets of cotton seeds that contain 450 grams of Bt cotton and 120 grams of non-Bt cotton seeds of same variety in each package for a price of Rs 1,600, which is sufficient for one acre of land. The seeds would be distributed for the period of three years so that crop could be monitored closely by experts. This step has been undertaken to prevent any possible adverse fallout of cultivating Bt cotton.

In India, for this season (Year 2002-03), Bt cotton hybrid from Mahyco backed by Monsanto has been grown over one lakh acres across six southern and central states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. In the above states, performance of Bt cotton has been reported in terms of higher number of bolls, reduced number of sprays of pesticides to control the bollworm and higher yield harvested. But at the end of September 2002, it has also been reported from Khargaon of Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha of Maharashtra and Bhavnagar, Sundernagar and Rajkot of Gujarat that Bt cotton has not only a failure against bollworm attack but also suffered from the Leaf Curl Virus in Khargaon (Madhya Pradesh) and rot disease (a disease of root) in Vidarbha. In the above stated places of Gujarat, Bt cotton was found resistant to bollworm in early stages of the plant growth, but as soon as formation of boll started, the worm started, attacking them. In these three states cotton cultivators are demanding compensation from Monsanto due to failure of Bt cotton. In some places germination and growth of Bt cotton had been hit by drought and other vagaries of weather.

In some areas of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat, illegal Bt cotton were grown in the last season. The farmers of these regions procured illegal Bt Cotton or genetically modified seeds from black market or unknown source. This illegal Bt cotton cultivation created the threat from availability of fake Bt cotton seeds in the Indian cotton market and also threat to development of resistance in bollworm against Bt gene because here Bt cotton cultivation has not been done according to internationally suggested method.

(To be continued)