GM cotton crops perform poorly in India

[JohnyCanuck]

but Monsanto keeps pushing their GM seed anyway.

Indian Cotton Farmers Betrayed

Rhea Gala travels to Andhra Pradesh to find out why small farmers are still planting GM Bt cotton when it has failed miserably since its introduction four years ago

I have been following the increased planting of Bt cotton across India for the last four years with disbelief. We have heard that the crop has failed very badly, and yet farmers are still queuing to plant Bt cotton, the only genetically modified (GM) crop with commercial approval in the country. In November last year, I finally decided to travel to Hyderabad, capital of Andhra Pradesh, to find out what's really going on.

<snip>

Mr G Raja Shekar of the CSA and Mr MD Amzad Ali of Sarvodaya Youth Organisation introduced me to big and small Bt farmers in the Warangal area. Raja Shekar had found from experience that only five to ten percent of the authorised Bt cotton delivers a competitive crop, while 90 percent looks very poor and is failing badly. This matched my observation that a stunted, wilted, thin and pink-tinged crop was predictably Bt, while a tall healthy, boll heavy and verdant crop almost invariably turned out to be non-Bt.

So powerful was the belief system manipulated by Monsanto's propaganda that many farmers we spoke to tended to blame the problem on external factors, like flooding, disease, or sucking pests; though some observed that the non-Bt crop had not been similarly afflicted. In some areas, unfortunately, there were few non-Bt crops to compare.

We spoke to farmer Ravinder Reddy and his brothers, who had a larger holding that was hosting a Monsanto trial for a new Bt hybrid, with Bt and non-Bt control hybrids for comparison. The trial crop was in a very poor state with diseased bolls and dry wilted leaves. The control Bt was better but not as good as the non-Bt hybrid, which was tall, green, bollful and lush. The farmer nevertheless praised the trial crop, explaining that it did not attract insects while the non-Bt healthy plants did. “The Bt technology is superior,” he said, “it is all a question of management; the village farmers will follow my lead.” This statement, in full view of contradictory evidence, later made more sense to me when one of the bystanders turned out to be a Monsanto representative.

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/IndianCottonFarmersBetrayed.php

[Dead_Parrot]

1. When I think of Monsanto...

...I wonder if capital punishment is really that bad, and might it not have some uses?

[smtpgirl]

4. Bt Cotton as well as Bt Corn

is sterile, Monsanto marketed without long term research.

Round up ready crops are resistant to the very pests they tried to kill. GM crops also "pollinate" other crops, that also render the non GM crops sterile too.

[NickB79]

9. That is only one variety of sterile Bt corn

There are over a dozen varieties, and only one is sterile right now. The rest are all very much fertile.

[smtpgirl]

5. Monsanto had the 3rd world in mind

Sell sterile products that will not seed the next year to the poorest nations on the globe.

[Dead_Parrot]

8. Ahh, Terminator...

I'll be back - to sell you next years seed. :grr:

[FloridaPat]

2. There are stupid people everywhere. And greedy people with

inferior products to sell them. I wonder if I could sell the Brooklyn Bridge to some of the Indians?

[NYC]

3. This doesn't bode well.

[Odin2005]

6. This is why the GM crop industry should be nationalized.

GM crops have the potential to help many, but not while companies like monsanto abuse the technology for profit.

[smtpgirl]

7. terminator seeds

Many are condemning the latest GM Terminator seeds. Yet there is not need to cause a raucous because the free market will decide which seeds farmers buy? When a Corporate farmer plows under the crop for next season sometimes he uses the old seeds for new life next season. In which case he might have a problem with the newest Genetically Modified Terminator Seeds. Well then if this will be the case he should use a different seed, which will spring up next season and grow, non-terminator seeds? It’s all about choice? Do not like Monsanto and their new GM Seeds? Then buy the seeds elsewhere. There are benefits to terminator seeds for instance a farmer who farms two or three seasons and is paid as part of his yield for purity, he does not want the old crop of something else mixed in with the new crop he is taking to market. When a small farmer of let's say Mustard Seed holds some of his acres for harvest for the seeds of the next season, he can use those seeds again and maybe some left over for others too. Meaning he can sell those extra seeds and offset some costs for his over head.

Said farmer could buy another seed from a different company to grow his own and not patronize Monsanto. And if in fact other farmers were interested, he could be in the seed business himself thus if Monsanto went too hog wild on this idea, they in fact might alienate the agricultural community and corporate farmers and thus have problems. Some fear that Monsanto is trying to corner the market on seeds and force them into buying their seeds. Yet the farmer is under no obligation to buy seeds from anyone they do not wish too. The GM Crop seed issue and the new terminator seeds debate seems to be ongoing, but in the end it will not be lawyers or politicians who decide. In the end it will be the free market. Think about it.


More....

EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow

[Nihil]

10. Free market? Like that exists??

> It’s all about choice? Do not like Monsanto and their new GM Seeds?
> Then buy the seeds elsewhere

Try coming into the real world love and think about the farmers who live
on their crops not their subsidies.

> Said farmer could buy another seed from a different company to grow
> his own and not patronize Monsanto. And if in fact other farmers were
> interested, he could be in the seed business himself ...

This is not about capitalistic opportunities, business ventures and
"what to do with your spare million this week". This is about getting
the maximum yield from your crop else people starve. This is about
being able to feed your family and have enough left to trade for the
stuff you can't grow. Monsanto (and their ilk) have enough financial
clout to persuade people that theirs is "the only true way to farm".
That isn't science: it's scientific blasphemy - the telling of untruths
to maintain one's own financial benefits rather than developing knowledge
for the good of all.