2138 Impact of Bt-cotton on Agriculture in India

Bt cotton was approved for commercial cultivation in India in March 2002 after stringent assessment for biosafety and profitability. The Bt-cotton area increased from a meager 0.4% to 40% of the cotton area in India, in a short period of four years. The technology was found to result in many positive benefits for Indian agriculture, especially in terms of reducing farmer stress from management issues related to the menacing cotton bollworm. Though other benefits of yield increases and pesticide reduction were apparent in majority of areas, some farmers and NGOs were raising concerns constantly from time to time. One of these was the spread of ‘illegal Bt-cotton’ varieties, which were untested and unapproved for biosafety, but were being clandestinely cultivated by farmers in some parts of the country. One clear impact of Bt-cotton on Indian agriculture appears to be the replacement of large tracts of varietal areas of north India, with Bt-hybrids, since the technology is available in India only in the form of hybrids. Bt-cotton seems to have reduced the overall quantity of insecticide substantially, only in some parts of the country, especially coupled with spectacular yield increases reported from one particular state called Gujarat, while rest of the states have been showing mixed results despite increase in the area under Bt-cotton. Secondary insect pests such as mirid bugs (Creontides biseratence), were found to increase to damaging numbers in unsprayed cotton fields. The tobacco caterpillar, Spodoptera litura, was also found to stage a come back as an economic pest of Bt-cotton. Data showed that thus far there are no symptoms of resistance to Cry1Ac in any of the bollworm field populations tested. Recently two additional events comprising of a truncated version of Cry1Ac and Cry1Ac+Cry2Ab (Bollgard-II) were approved for cultivation. The new genes are expected to be more useful in introducing genetic variability in the available transgenes so that minor pests and resistance can be management effectively.