Agencies

London, May 26:

Indian farmers have won a small battle against GM crops by establishing simply that they can be less productive than normal crops.

Earlier this month the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee of the Indian government withheld licences for commercial cultivation on three varieties of genetically modified (GM) cotton developed by the US, firm Monsanto — Mech-12 Bt, Mech-162 Bt and Mech-184 Bt.

That was followed by a painstaking campaign by several non-governmental organisations. “For the last three years we carried out systemic research in Monsanto’s Bt cotton,” PV Satheesh, who heads the Coalition in Defence of Diversity in the southern Indian state Andhra Pradesh said. That led to the ban on the three varieties of GM cotton seeds. “Every year we have been socking the results into the face of Monsanto,” Satheesh said, “They were not able to counter us. So it became very compelling for the Andhra government and for the government of India to act.”

The three-year scientific study tracked the experiences of small farmers from planting to harvest in the Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh. “It found that three GM cotton varieties did not live up to the claims made by the agro-company Maycho-Monsanto and performed less well than traditional non-GM seeds,” the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) which supported the anti-GM campaign said.

Though costing nearly 400 per cent more to buy, the average yield from the GM cotton was about 150kg per acre, 30 percent less than from other non-GM varieties. The GM seeds also cost 12 per cent more to cultivate in their need for manure and irrigation, and the reduction in pesticide use was negligible.

“Non-GM farmers earned 60 per cent more than their GM counterparts over the three-year period,” IIED said. This is the first success of the campaign against GM crops in India, Satheesh said. “India has one percent of the global GM crop coverage, but there is a strong biotech wing that wants to push it ahead. They see in this global opportunities for India,” he said.

That push is being countered at present by many groups of farmers, NGOs, and by “people involved in agricultural research who are trying to express concern,” Satheesh said.