Farmer can reuse the cotton seed the following year, unlike the hybrid BT cotton
The conference's aim was to create a national platform to discuss and sort out various issues related to cotton ginning and trade (Photo: DC Archives)
Mumbai: In the backdrop of nationwide farmer distress, particularly among cotton farmers, the government has been urged to allow farmers to use the reusable straight line BN Bt cotton seed and other similar varieties as against those non-reusable hybrid seeds being sold by corporates. This would help farmers save up to Rs 3,000 per acre.Speaking to this correspondent, farmers’ leader Vijay Jawandhia said that the BT cotton seed industry is a Rs 4,000 crore business and profits are enormous and the use of BN Bt cotton will also be in line with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make-in-India programme.
“I have appealed to the minister for environment, forests, and climate change Prakash Javedkar. Though Mr Javdekar was very sympathetic, his ministry officials are misleading him,” Mr Jawandhia said. In the US, said Mr Jawandhia, they use straight line seeds and not hybrid BT cotton as it requires a lot of manual labour. In a reply to Mr Jawandhia’s letter to the minister on February 12, environment ministry’s director Dr (Ms) R. Warrier replied saying: “This is to inform you that the Genetically Engineering Application Committee (GEAC) in its meeting on May 2, 2008, had approved commercial release of Bikanari Nirma (BN BT cotton) in North, Central and South zones.
However, due to certain patent issues, the matter was referred to the Sudhir Sopory Committee constituted by ICAR. The Committee on verification has found that Bikanari Nirma actually contains BT gene Cry 1Ac (MON 531event) originally patented by a different company.”Mr Jawandhia, however, informed Ms Warrier that the patent was that of Monsanto and it has since expired and Monsanto too had no objections.
He also sent her and the minister and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi copies of a speech (published in Pakistani daily Dawn on January 6, 2015) by the Pakistan textile minister Abbas Khan Afridi who said, “the gene used in Pakistani varieties was MON 531 or Cry1AC, and its patent had expired making it free to use.”However, she had not reacted to Mr Jawandhia’s reference to Pakistan’s use. “Top officials in the ministry are delaying because there are only two months left for field trials of the BN Bt. There needs to be an enquiry into this,” he said.
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