Scientists find nothing ‘prabal’ in Monsanto seeds

A variety of reasons including lack of suitability of Prabal variety of maize in the tribal areas of Gujarat led the government to withdraw the use of Monsanto's double-cross hybrid of maize in Project Sunshine.

Several scientists and agriculturists who had opposed the use of the double-cross hybrid seeds had pointed out that though the output had gone up for tribal farmers, it came after heavy doses of fertilizer and excess use of water.

Dr MC Varshneya, former V-C of Anand Agriculture University, said that the Prabal variety of seeds needed more water and heavy doses of fertilizer. It should be noted that farming in the tribal areas of Gujarat is heavily dependent on the rain.

According to Varshneya, the state agriculture universities were not given a fair chance to supply their seeds for the project in the first place.

Dr SN Goyal, a former research scientist for maize at the AAU, said Prabal hybrid was late in maturing. "Early maturity seeds are recommended for rain-fed areas, particularly those in the eastern parts of the state. Late maturity hybrids in rain-fed conditions increased the chances of crop failure if the rain was not adequate," said Goyal.

The scientist added that Prabal did not allow for inter-cropping. "Farmers grow maize with other crops as an inter-crop to avoid total crop failure in rain-fed areas. This was not possible with Prabal seeds," said Goyal.

It should be noted that Monsanto has maintained that Prabal hybrid was a notified hybrid that had been successfully tested for many years in government systems and was granted the status only after exceptional results.