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WHAT DID WE WITNESS/EXPERIENCE IN THE PAST 15 YEARS OF BT COTTON CULTIVATION IN INDIA?

• Cotton yields have stagnated – the best yield growth was in years when Bt cotton had not expanded.
• Pesticide usage on cotton – overall volumes in the country as well as per hectare intensity – has increased after these 15 years compared to what it was when Bt cotton was first introduced. Insecticide usage has gone up from 0.88 kg/ha in 2002 to 0.97 kg/ha by 2013. Total insecticide usage more than doubled from 4600 Mt in 2006 (when expansion of Bt cotton began) to 11598 MT in 2013.
• It is estimated that more than 100 million kilos of Bt toxin has been infused into India’s cotton farms with the cultivation of Bt cotton. Implications and effects of this on soil health are unassessed.
• Targeted pest – bollworm – has developed resistance to Bt cotton. This is particularly so with Pink Bollworm which is creating huge losses even in ‘second generation’ Bt cotton.
• Fertilizer usage in India’s cotton cultivation has gone up from 96 kg/ha (2006) to 224 kg/ha (2013), while total fertilizer usage in the country, on cotton, increased by 2.2 times.
• Cost of cultivation is increasing – agro-chemicals are contributing to this, amongst other factors.
• Evidence points to farm suicides increasing with area under Bt cotton. High variability in performance is noted in Bt cotton.
• Agro-diversity declined as (Bt) cotton expanded to around 12 million hectares in the country.
• Cotton (in the form of Khadi) which was a galvanizing successful symbol of India’s freedom struggle had its seed controlled by an American multinational corporation – Monsanto, which has recently been taken over by Bayer – with at least 90-92% of India’s Bt cotton land planted to its proprietary technology. Hundreds of crores of rupees have been collected in the name of licensing/technology fees and royalty.
• Indian organic cotton which was witnessing impressive growth, and was showing the path to sustainable cotton farming, took a severe beating with the push of Bt cotton.
• Other adverse impacts seem to be ignored and uninvestigated – these include impacts on livestock, human health and honey production.

It is only in the recent past that Governments in India are admitting to the failure of Bt cotton. There are hard cautionary lessons to be learnt from these 15 years of the bitter harvest of Bt cotton in India, so that we don’t repeat the mistakes. That too at the expense of hapless Indian farmers.