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Bt Cotton: Solution Or Problem?

November 3, 2022

By Dr Sonia Goel

Ever since the introduction in India Bt cotton has faced severe opposition based on its environmental and health implications, though there are no conclusive evidence for the same and the dominance of Monsanto which created the Bt cotton seeds. Several misleading information related Bt cotton with the farmers suicide happening in India.

Bt cotton contains a gene from a bacterium that produces an insecticide against some caterpillars that are serious cotton pests. Whether you believe it is a killer or a savior in India probably depends on who you hang out with. Most of what is said on the issue spreads through highly polarized agenda-driven information networks.

Bt cotton is repeatedly said to cause farmer suicide because

It is expensive, plunging poor farmers into debt

It requires high levels of water

It fails a lot (invariably according to the latest claims)

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A clipping from a newspaper

GM is a savior? There are some serious problems with the economics studies of Bt cotton and that’s a whole other story. But there is also a lot going on in recent cotton history other than Bt or not Bt.

Bt cotton has been generally effective in warding off caterpillars. It has not failed and has not run up farmer debts, no matter what the network of anti-GMO sources says. But it has now snagged farmers on a genetic technology treadmill. By 2009 there were 5 different Bt gene combinations going into 284 separate Bt hybrids. Before anyone figures out how these seeds function, they will be replaced. Now populations of the non-target pests are starting to explode, and biotech companies are working on new genes as a solution for that problem.

References

Kranthi, K.R., Stone, G.D. Long-term impacts of Bt cotton in India. Nat. Plants 6, 188–196 (2020)

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