India comes first in the amount of area under which the cotton is cultivated but it comes in the 13nth place in the amount of crop yield.
According to Zilberman and Qaim based on a years trial in india planting GM crops in india can drammatically increse the crop yield.
The thing to be noted is that not all GM crops increases the yield in crop. Many characteristics are modified in crops but the resistance to insects and diseases plays a contributing role in preventing loss in yield.
Even though Bt cotton is known to give a better yield but there are known to be more susceptible to leaf-curl virus and root-rot disease in india and suffer more than the traditional varieties.
It is also said that Bt cotton has less fibre length as result of which the the market is not enthusiastic about it.
Even though the yield of Bt cotton is more but Indian farmers will have to pay four times the price for Bt cotton seeds.
In march 2002 the indian government gave permission for the commercialisation of Bt cotton.
50,000 farmers planted more tham 40,000 ha of Bt cotton in 2002 and ICAR had planted Bt cotton for all india coordinated variety trails.The MMB claims were questioned by by Green peace banglore, Gene campaign Delhi.
The indian parliamentry commitee's report that farmers who have grown Bt cotton have been put in loss.
In china too it has been reported in a study that even though the major pest isnt much of a problem anymore, other pests that were minor earlier have become a major problem now as they are not effected by the Bt toxin.
My take:
Even though Bt cotton was a boon of sorts showing that pests can be controlled and yields increased it may have negative impacts too . Bt cotton also showed how genes can be used for the benefit of man.
Many government reports have also made it clear that Bt toxin won't effect man as well as the environment.
On the other hand there are lots of questions which arise in respect to Bt cotton. Are the farmers and the environment really benifitted by Bt cooton or for that matter any other GM crop. It has been seen that untested GM crops might also lead to cancer. The government has surely assured us that man or environment wont be affected but i guess BT cotton must be continually checked for negative impacts as well as unseen problems.
The other problem which has now been seen in china , a major producer in BT cotton that minor pests have have now become major pests.
Since less pesticides are used and BT cotton is effective only against bollworms, the minor pests have turned into major pests. The damage of cotton plants is turning out to be the same as before.
I am going to end this blog with a series of biggies and some fun questions thrown at you. do tell me what you all think.
Does Bt cotton need to be altered specific to ecosystems? Are GM crops really helping out whom they are destined to help?
What sort of cotton would you like to see in the market with what genes being played around with? ;)
references:
Lu, Y. et al. Science advance online publication doi:10.1126/science.1187881 (2010).
Wang, S., Just, D. & Pinstrup-Anderson, P. Int. J. Biotechnol. 10, 113-120 (2008).
Article
www.ias.ac.in/currsci/mar252004/758.pdf
