10 Years of Bt in India: Biotech Seeds Save Indian Market

Ten years ago, in the sweltering 48 degree Celsius summer heat of May 2001, farmers from several parts of the country were traveling to the cotton institute in the central Indian city of Nagpur to find out if their cotton seeds contained the Bt toxin gene. I remember one such group of about 25 to 30 farmers from Gujarat, the far eastern state of India, who had traveled 800 miles without a train reservation. Each of them brought cotton seeds sealed in aluminum pouches with brand labels of Navbharat-151, Rakshak, Viraat, Kawach-151, Krushi-357, Trishul and Suraksha to be tested at the institute for presence of the Bt gene.

By end of that day, when they saw the results, they were all smiles and suddenly looked well-fed, despite having eaten just a banana and samosa that day. All of the seed packets tested positive for the presence of the Bt toxin called Cry1Ac. A few minutes later, they all left to catch the evening train back to Gujarat.

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Experiencing agony and ecstasy on the same day, none of them seemed to be worried that Bt cotton was not as yet approved for commercial cultivation in India by the GEAC (Genetic Engineering Approval Committee) under the Ministry of Environment, the apex GM regulatory authority. Farmer visits for Bt testing had become a daily routine at CICR.

Nine years later, about 6.8 million farmers in India purchased more than 30 million authentic Bt cotton, GEAC-approved seed packets and planted them in 9.4 million hectares. All they knew was that they wouldn’t have to worry about bollworm attacks.

For more than a decade, since before 2002, the American bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera, has unleashed terror in cotton fields by destroying more than 50% of cotton yields in India. Bollworm caterpillars had become resistant to all insecticides recommended for control and none of the chemicals worked, even when mixed as cocktails at doubled concentration.

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Investment, especially on insecticides, increased by leaps and bounds while yields had declined just as much. Within four years of its introduction, Bt cotton changed the story in India. Yields doubled. Insecticide use was reduced to half of the previous level. Several researchers estimated the net average gains from Bt cotton to be in the range of $76 to $250 per hectare.

For five consecutive years after 2005, India has harvested a record average of 5.1 million tonnes, leaving behind the pre-Bt record of 3 million tonnes. India has been producing at least 1 million tonnes in excess of domestic consumption over the past few years. Domestic consumption also increased from 2.87 million tonnes in 2002 to 4.52 million tonnes in 2010.

It is widely believed that the introduction of Bt cotton into India has contributed to the sudden increase of India’s contribution to global cotton production, from 14% in 2002 to 20.5% in 2007. India became a leading global exporter of raw cotton, with exports ranging from 600,000 to 1.5 million tonnes of raw cotton each year after 2005, while concomitantly, imports declined from 430,000 tonnes to 90,000 tonnes.

The quality improved. Trash content was reduced and bollworm-affected “bad-kapas” were gone. Prior to 2002, long-staple cotton production was only 38% of the total cotton, but that proportion increased to 77% five years later. Cotton accounted for 46% of the total insecticides used in India in 2001 and earlier, but it soon declined to 25% within 4 years of Bt cotton introduction. Everything about cotton in India changed.

Separating Real from Fake
Bollgard Bt cotton is a genetically modified variety that was first developed by Monsanto Co. in 1986 by transferring a gene from bacteria called Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) into cotton plants. The cry gene produces a crystal protein which is highly toxic only to bollworm caterpillars. Monsanto commercialized the Bt cotton technology in 1996 in the United States. The Bt cotton technology later spread to 16 million hectares in 13 cotton-growing countries – including major producers India, China, Pakistan and Brazil – by 2010.

The Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company (MAHYCO) entered into an agreement with Monsanto to import the technology into India. When Bt cotton was first commercialized on April 5, 2002, the biggest headache that MAHYCO and government agencies had was that fake versions of Bt cotton hybrids were already being circulated in the market.

The original, 450-gram Bt cotton seed packs were priced at 1,350 to 1,650 rupees, while fake versions were available for just 400 to 600 rupees. Lured by the low cost of fake Bt seeds, farmers were easily be trapped into buying them. But they would not know if the seeds really had the Bt gene in them.

The Bt cotton seeds and plants looked normal and it was impossible to separate them from normal seeds or plants. It was then that the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR) in Nagpur stepped in and developed a simple test method, much like a litmus test paper, that could tell the difference and identify the Bt gene in the seed packets within 10 minutes — at a cost of 22 U.S. cents per test. The kits became so indispensable that the Ministry of Agriculture quickly declared the lab in the institute as the Bt referral lab for the entire country.

In the early years, the institute found that 69% of the unapproved brands sold as Bt cotton were of unacceptable quality and that 6% of the approved brands were also of inferior quality. Over the past four years, the proportion of spurious brands has declined to less than 5%, especially after the price of Bollgard packets was restricted by the courts in India not to exceed 650 rupees per 450-gram pack of Bollgard and 725 rupees for Bollgard-II, which contains two genes (Cry1Ac+Cry2Ab).

Bt seed quality no longer seems to be a major issue in India. The Bt-detection kits enabled regulation, streamlining and ensuring Bt-cotton seed quality for farmers in the country. All seed testing laboratories in India have been using the kits and thousands of seed lots have been tested using the kits all over the country.

Battling the Bad Press
There has been opposition from some NGO groups from the beginning. The initial opposition was very speculative and confusing without any reasonable assessment of the technological strengths of Bt cotton. Much of the campaign and criticism were also based on plain ignorance. MAHYCO first faced opposition when their MLRT trials in Karnataka, a south Indian state, were uprooted and burnt by an NGO group called KRRS (Karnataka Rajya Raita Sangha) in November 1998, alleging that Bt cotton had the “Terminator” gene, originally known as the Technology Protection System patented by USDA and Delta & Pineland. Studies in India later proved that Bt cotton did not have any of the so-called “Terminator” genes. The NGOs continued their tirade. They alleged that goats died after feeding on Bt cotton leaves. Studies were conducted at CICR by tethering six goats in one hectare of Bt cotton and one hectare of conventional cotton. The goats were fed on the crop continuously for four months and researchers concluded that there were no differences in any biological aspects of the two sets of animals and that Bt cotton was safe to goats.

Later, several NGOs started highlighting any crop failure as a failure of Bt cotton technology. Some started a campaign that Bt cotton was input intensive and was making farmers debt ridden over the years and finally forcing them to commit suicides, especially in the 1.4 million hectare, rain-fed farming systems of Vidarbha, a predominantly dry tract of the central Indian state of Maharashtra. Clearly crop failures resulting from either abiotic or biotic stress were being attributed to Bt technology. Some tried to instigate the farmers to claim compensation from the company, ignoring the fact that Bt cotton was developed specifically to offer protection against bollworms, not against any other adverse factors.

Interestingly, the yields doubled in Maharashtra, from 194 kg of lint per hectare in 2002 to 394 kg of lint per hectare in 2010. It is important to note that 97% of 4 million hectares of cotton in Maharashtra is grown under rain-fed conditions. The area in Maharashtra increased from 2.8 million hectares in 2002 to 4 million hectares by 2010, with Bt cotton occupying more than 95% of the area.

However, some of the issues highlighted by NGOs were valid. They alleged that the phenomenal increase in area under Bt cotton was not necessarily farmer driven, but happened because of the non-availability of the conventional non-Bt seed packets in the market. Farmers have been unable to make a proper choice of the Bt cotton hybrids from the 780 hybrid brands sold by 34 seed companies. Most of the hybrids are highly susceptible to sap-sucking insects, thus forcing farmers to use insecticides.

Three Bt hybrids were approved for commercial cultivation in 2002. Initially, Bt cotton was cultivated in 29,000 hectares. By 2010, 34 seed companies, who were sub licensees of MAHYCO Monsanto Biotech (MMB) and a few of other technology developers such as JK seeds, Nath seeds and Metahelix, developed 780 Bt cotton hybrids incorporating three genes (cry1Ac, cry2Ab and cry1C) as six GM events approved by the GEAC. The area under Bt cotton increased to an estimated 85% of the total 11.1 million hectares in 2010.

Here ends Part I of Cotton International’s three-part “10 Years of Bt in India” series with Dr. Keshav Kranthi. Click for Part II.

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