The area under desi cotton has increased by about eight lakh hectares (ha) to 17 lakh ha this year, while that under Bt cotton, which is genetically engineered to produce toxins against American and pink bollworms, has declined by nearly 21 lakh ha to about 85 lakh ha. Much of the desi cotton area increase has happened in north India because of last year’s whitefly scourge which devastated Punjab’s cotton crop. Bt genes do not kill whiteflies. In Gujarat, some shift has happened because of emerging resistance in pink bollworms to Bt toxins. This is true of central Maharashtra as well. High prices of pulses in the past two years have also persuaded farmers to divert cotton acreage to black gram (urad) and pigeon pea (tur). 

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Bt technology has done Indian farmers a lot of good. In 2014-15, India became the largest producer of cotton. It is also the second largest exporter. It must be kept in mind that at one time India was an importer. Bt traits do not by themselves increase productivity; they do so by saving crop from pest damage. The assurance of safety from bollworms, which used to ravage the crop before Bt technology was approved for use in 2002, encourages farmers to devote their best lands to cotton and lavish it with fertilizers. 

Those ideologically opposed to Bt cotton will cheer the increase in desi cotton acreage. They associate the genetically engineered cottonseed with the American multinational Monsanto, which is now being acquired by the German MNC Bayer. They see neo-colonialism in farmers having to buy seed year after year. This is because the Bt technology developer has allowed the trait to be grafted only into hybrids, which lose vigour if saved seeds are sown the next season. This is true even of non-genetically engineered hybrids. In the United States Bt genes are inserted into open pollinating save-and-sow varieties. But companies there can get farmers to pay royalties for the bollworm-killing (or weedicide tolerating) trait because of strong intellectual property laws. In India, the only way for Bt trait developers to recover their investment and profit from it is by selling hybrids. 

Scientists like K R Kranthi of Nagpur’s Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR) approve of Bt technology but see it as a passing show. Eventually, bugs will defeat that which is meant to exterminate them. This is how they developed resistance to pesticides; they will eventually defeat Bt genes as well. Nascent pink bollworm resistance to Bt cotton has been reported in a number of states. Protocols have been prescribed to delay resistance. But resistance cannot be avoided.

Kranthi believes the root cause of India’s vulnerability to bollworms is the adoption of American cotton. Four species of cotton are grown worldwide. Two, American and Egyptian, are from the New World, and two others from the old world. They are also known as Asiatic or desi cottons. The latter covered 97 percent of India’s cotton acreage at the time of independence, according to Kranthi. They are hardy plants and better suited for this part of the earth. Kranthi, therefore, advices farmers to go native. Since the ruling dispensation believes everything that is great and good happened in India’s distant past, nationalistic connotations could be inferred. According to Kranthi, the British introduced American cotton varieties to India in 1790, after the American War of Independence forced a search for alternative supply sources. The Lancashire and Manchester mills were designed for American cotton of medium staple length and good strength. These varieties had acclimatised to Indian conditions by the mid-19th century, but the British were unable to get Indian farmers to forsake desi cotton.

Indian scientists, Kranthi says, completed the unfinished task after independence. Though calicoes and fine muslin produced from desi cotton were much in demand before British mill-made cloth arrived, Indian plant breeders regarded it as coarse and inferior because of short staple length. They focused on improving American cotton varieties. By 2002, the area under desi cotton had shrunk to 25 percent of the crop acreage. The adoption of Bt technology accelerated the spread of American cotton. (Currently available Bt traits cannot be grafted into desi cotton which have two chromosomes, compared to American cotton’s four). American cotton, not being native to India, is vulnerable to pests, especially bollworms. The reliance on hybrids has aggravated this vulnerability. Hybrids have high yield potential and are responsive to chemical fertilizers. But their life has to be extended to make multiple pickings possible, for higher output and recovery of higher input costs. 

CICR believes short duration desi varieties which last just two pickings (compared to five with Bt hybrids) will obviate the need for Bt technology. The cotton would have been picked and plants cut before bollworms strike. To make up for fewer pickings the planting will have to be very dense. This will bridge the yield gap with American hybrids. “For me personally this is a long-term plan for the nation, from a sustainability point of view,” says Kranthi.

The farmers in Wardha district whom this correspondent met in April were happy with the money they made from desi cotton. The seeds were cheaper. The crop hardly required any sprays. Thirty of them had been roped in. They reported savings comparable with American cotton because of low input costs. The NGO says it has enlisted 200 farmers this monsoon season. But some of the farmers who had grown desi last year no longer do so. They said the boll size of desi cotton is small, so workers were reluctant as they have to put in more effort to earn the same amount (as they are paid per kg). There were other complaints too. Farmers said there were also no suitable ginning mills around. The NGO was the sole buyer. Being of short length, the cotton had only surgical uses. 

But for the very first time long staple desi cotton has been developed. The trials are happening at 15 locations across the country. Kranti says the cotton research station at Faridkot (Punjab) has reported encouraging results. If the varieties pass the grade, the seeds for a few hundred acres should be available in time for the next planting season. But CICR is not hitching its wagon entirely to desi cotton. It has grafted Monsanto’s MON531 event (cell mutated with a Bt gene), into its own American cotton varieties (not hybrids). The US patent for this event expired in 2012. The seeds should be available from next year. Farmers will have a choice between buying hybrids seeds or producing their own. 

But Bt hybrids will still be preferred in irrigated areas. To ensure the longevity of the technology, the latest versions will have to be deployed. That will not happen unless the government clarifies its attitude to intellectual property rights. A paper put out on September 16 by a panel headed by Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian has cautioned against ‘de facto and de jure expropriation of property rights’ for the greater good of Indian agriculture. 

The author is editor of www.smartindianagriculture.in, a website devoted to the promotion of scientific farming, including use of genetically-engineered seeds