Bt cotton – its fate in India

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium.  The fiber is almost pure cellulosse. Cotton is a crop of very high economic value because of its widespread demand in the textile industry, representing 38% of the fiber market. The uses of the cotton fiber and its seeds are widespread, ranging from clothing, upholstery, cosmetics, packaging to cottonseed-oil, paper, electrical equipment, and livestock feed. As of 2008-2009 reports, the largest producer of cotton is China, followed by USA and India. For such an important cash crop, the loss of hundreds of acres worth of harvest due to attack by pests proves to be a big loss to farmers as well as the industry. It also leads to waste of precious resources like soil, water and labor. 

Bt is a family of proteins originating from strains of the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis. There are more than 200 different types of Bt toxins, each affecting different types of insects. This bacterial gene, introduced genetically into the cotton seeds, producing the Bt cotton variety, which protects the plants from bollworm (A. lepidoptora), a major pest of cotton. The worm feeding on the leaves of a BT cotton plant becomes lethargic and sleepy, thereby causing less damage to the plant.

Field trials have shown that farmers who grew the Bt variety obtained 25%–75% more cotton than those who grew the normal variety. Also, Bt cotton requires only two sprays of chemical pesticide against eight sprays for normal variety. According to the director general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, India uses about half of its pesticides on cotton to fight the bollworm menace. Use of Bt cotton has led to a 3%–27 % increase in cotton yield in countries where it is grown.

The revolutionary Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton crop in India has started losing steam steadily due to lack of innovation and diversified pest attacks emerging from frequent changes in climatic conditions. During field monitoring of the cotton crop in 2009 in Gujarat, Monsanto and Mahyco scientists detected unusual survival of the pink bollworm (PBW) to the first-generation single-protein bollgard cotton. Laboratory testing confirmed resistance in PBW populations to Bt protein in bollgard cotton in Gujarat. This was reported to the Indian Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC). However, the second-generation Bt cotton containing two Bt proteins (Bollgard IITM) continued to be effective in controlling pink bollworms and the resistance issue could be quickly overcome with adoption of Bollgard II. Although, the innovator of Bt technology, the US-headquartered Monsanto claims to have introduced an update of bollworm resistant Bt cotton, the technology failed to help raise India’s per hectare yield.

Both Monsanto and Mahyco have defended the new technology - Bollgard II - which they claim have capability to resist PWB.  Monsanto advised farmers to regularly monitor the fields under Bt cotton cultivation. Planting non-Bt cotton refuge is the most important practice the farmers should adopt. Furthermore, farmers have been constantly educated to adopt measures such as need-based application of insecticide sprays during the crop season and adoption of cultural practices like keeping the field clean of cotton stubble and crop-leftovers, ploughing of land after harvest so that the resting stages of the insects in the soil could be destroyed.