I. Questions asked by the parliamentary panel
Bt Cotton: failed promises!
New Delhi: A parliamentary panel has called for an in-depth probe into the agriculture ministry’s role in the government’s decision to approve the commercial release of Bt Cotton in the country in 2002. According to the parliamentary standing committee on agriculture, the department of agriculture has not discharged its mandated responsibility in a professional manner as far as the introduction of trans genic agricultural crops in India are concerned.
“It has to be found out how Bt Cotton became priority when the avowed goal for introduction of transgenics in agricultural crops was with a view to ensure and maintain food security,” the committee said in a report.
“Bt Cotton is a cash crop which in no way would have contributed to the food security of the country,” it said.
India is now the largest cultivator of Bt Cotton, jumping from 400,000 hectares to 12,600,000 hectares now after it was approved for commercial cultivation in 2002 by the regulator, genetic engineering approval committee of the union environment ministry. According to the report, lakhs of hectares got diverted to Bt Cotton cultivation because of misconception about its potential. And that reduced the area of cultivation of several food crops, jeopardising the country’s food security to that extent.
The report said in 2002, when the Bt Cotton was allowed in India, the technology applied in hardly a few countries whose agricultural practices, farmers’ profile and percentage of population dependent on the sector was totally different from that of India. Noting that 70 percent of India’s population survives on agriculture and 70 percent of Indian farmers are small and marginal, the report said the agriculture department did not take into account the differences in individual land holdings between farmers in India and those in the US and Canada.
The average farm size in India is 1.25 acres against hundreds of acres in the US. Similarly, the huge difference in farmers’ incomes, levels of mechanisation and irrigation facilities were not properly analysed by the ministry, it said. Another aspect where the ministry failed was the cost of seed and other inputs that the introduction of transgenics entailed.
“The cost-benefit analysis was clearly in favour of the industry and not the farmers,” said the report.
It noted that the Bt Cotton seed was sold initially at Rs.2, 200 a kg against a fraction of the cost for the locally available seed. Even now at Rs.1, 500 per kg, it is high, said the report. According to the report, though farmers in Gujarat, where availability of water is better, benefited from Bt Cotton, the technology has contributed to the agrarian crisis in Vidarbha, Maharashtra.
Bt Cotton technology was meant for irrigated areas but was pushed in all cotton-growing states. The report mentioned that traditional cotton varieties grown in Brazil had three times more yield than Bt Cotton grown in India.
II. Why selling of Bt cotton seeds by Mahyco was banned in Maharashtra
Mumbai: The Maharashtra government has cancelled the licence of Mahyco, one of the largest crop biotechnology companies in the country, to sell Bt cotton seeds in the state in a decision that reflects the pulls and pressures of farm politics in western India.
The ban has been attributed to alleged market malpractices by the company, not the concept of genetically modified crops, which in itself is a controversial topic. (Bt stands for Bacillus thuringiensis, the bacterium whose gene is inserted into cotton to genetically modify it.)
Mahyco or Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company has been accused by cotton farmers and dealers of creating an artificial shortage of seeds and then selling them at exorbitant prices in the black market. Mahyco, headquartered in Maharashtra, has a 50-50 joint venture with US multinational Monsanto and is considered a pioneer in its field in the country.
The ban on the sale of seeds has been clamped after sowing was over, although complaints were being made over the past two months. The timing of the action means that the company gets nearly a year till the next sowing season in June 2013 to sort out the issue.
The delayed action ensures that the crop in the state will not be affected. Maharashtra accounts for a third of the country’s total cotton acreage of 120 lakh hectares.
Many are viewing the licence ban as a shot across the bows of the powerful agriculture establishment, which is torn between two power centres.
The administrative powers lie with the Congress, which holds the agriculture portfolio. But the agricultural system — both farming companies and farmers — is largely allied with coalition partner NCP because of Sharad Pawar’s long stint in the state.
It is an open secret that the Maharashtra Congress does not want to lose any chance to explore the possibility of breaking into Pawar’s sources of support. Against such a backdrop, the complaints by farmer bodies, which are known to be opposed to a section of the seed companies, have come in handy for the Congress, sources said.
The licence cancellation was initiated on Wednesday evening by the agriculture controller and director in Pune. The state government has filed a caveat before Bombay High Court that in case the company moves an appeal, the court must first hear the government before issuing any interim order.
“As of now, we haven’t received any official communication from the state government regarding the withdrawal of our licence,” A.R. Subbarao, a senior company official at Mahyco’s corporate headquarters in Mumbai, told the press this evening. “But if what we are hearing from the media is true, it’s unfortunate.”
The Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra was aware of the allegations since mid-June. Police had then caned farmers in Beed, a town in central Maharashtra, to break up a violent protest. The farmers had launched the protest after dealers told them that a popular seed variety of Mahyco was in short supply.
Farmer’s suicide: when promises fail!
Maharashtra agriculture minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil had accused Mahyco of misleading the government but the company had denied the charges.
The government then listed data that discounted the possibility of a shortage. Around 30 companies sold more than 1.7 crore 450-gram cotton seed packets last season for a crop spread over 41 lakh hectares across the state. This year, the acreage has shrunk to 40 lakh hectares but the seed supply was put at over 2 crore packets.
“This is not the first year when the company has been warned; there have been problems with Mahyco for two to three years now,” agriculture commissioner Umakant Dangat said.
Dangat said the agriculture department had this year banned advance booking of cotton seeds — a practice that led to black-marketing of seeds. Instead, the department asked the seed companies to submit their production and distribution plans for each district. “All the seed companies complied with it, except Mahyco,” Dangat said.
PS: There is a third story too. This one is from Bihar. Find it here.