Once upon a time in India, farmers grew indigenous ('desi') Asiatic cotton.
Desi cotton was grown in multi-cropping systems which provided back-up crops if one of them failed. It could be planted at a high density to increase yield and had a short season which reduced pest exposure. This traditional cotton had good tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, including bollworm, saline conditions and drought. Today, the crop accounts for less than 3% of the cotton area in India.
In the early 1980s desi cotton was elbowed out by American cotton hybrids with a more amenable lint quality for modern textile production. The Green Revolution cotton has a long season allowing extra opportunities for pests, and is dependent on fertiliser and pesticide applications. It is planted at lower densities to give marginally (2.5%) higher yields.
Starting in 2002, the original American cotton was removed from the market to make way for 'Bt' insecticide-generating GM cotton.
Bt cotton is sold with promises of high yield due to its immunity to bollworm damage and high returns due to its lower need for pesticide applications. Indeed, in 2018, one Indian government minister claimed "Since the introduction of Bt cotton in 2002, there has been a near doubling of cotton production in the country".
However, this grand GM crop 'success' in fact referred to a doubling of the Bt cotton crops grown, not to yield (kilograms of lint per hectare), nor to farmers' profits (net income per hectare). The increased growing of GM cotton was probably driven by the promises of reduced pesticide application along with the elimination of damage from a major pest, plus (as suggested by a study in 2019) fashion and peer pressure amongst farmers [1]. It was almost certainly also due to the fact that no other cotton seed was available.
The reality on the ground is that cotton yields have stagnated. They have only stayed as high as they are due to enhanced fertiliser use, increased irrigation, pesticide seed-treatment, and because the monsoons have been good.
Net returns are poor for the farmer because cotton prices are unstable, seed must be purchased every year and chemical inputs are substantial and expensive.
In the last five years, various Bt cotton-growing districts have reported up to 100% crop loss due to attack by pink bollworm, the key pest that the GM crop was supposed to be protected from. Support for farmers suffering these devastating losses has not been good.
There's a number of knock-on negative effects of growing Bt cotton.
An increased need for chemical fertilisers, is a direct risk to the health of farmers applying it, and an indirect risk to the wider population and environment especially through water pollution. Chemical fertilisers are responsible for soil degradation. Excess nitrogen fertiliser in the soil is converted by microbes to nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 300 times as potent as CO2,, contributing to climate change.
Boosted by inefficient water use and pollution in India, Bt cotton hybrids have an exceptionally large water foot-print.
That GM Indian cotton T-shirt you're wearing represents the exportation of 2,300 litres of precious Indian water. Your American cotton T-shirt has extracted only 800 litres of water from its country of origin.
Although cotton is grown on only about 5% of India's croplands, as much as 55% of pesticide expenditure is on this one crop.
Inhalation of toxic pesticides is a major health risk for farm-workers. Indeed, in the last two years, pesticide manufacturer, Syngenta, has been taken to court in it country of origin, Switzerland, by families of Indian victims killed or severely injured by the Company's insecticide 'Polo' (active ingredient diafenthiuron) which they had sprayed on their Bt cotton crop.
Survivors of Polo poisoning have reported severe post-spraying symptoms such as temporary blindness, nausea, breathing difficulties, neurological and muscular complaints and even unconsciousness for some days. In some people, the effects continue and have reduced their ability to work and earn.
Sygenta has since prohibited the export of five problematic pesticides, including diafenthiuron.
Hybrid seeds and inputs don't come cheap: money-lenders are essential to prop up the system.
One of the most concerning offshoots of Bt cotton in India and the hyped claims of its benefits, is that it's now being used as a template for the introduction of Bt brinjal (aubergine), a major vegetable eaten fresh and across all sections of Indian society.
Safety concerns were spelled out by Professor David Schubert in 2009: "It is virtually certain that within the vast Indian population a large number of people eating Bt brinjal are going to be or will become allergic to this foreign protein; this number cannot be predicted and some of the immune responses will likely be severe, causing anaphylaxis and possibly fatalities. Since there will be no way of tracking these adverse reactions within the population, and since once Bt brinjal is commercially grown, its genetic presence within a major calorie source for the Indian population is irreversible, a simple decision has to be made. Is the negligible benefit of Bt brinjal worth the clear risk? My conclusion is that it is not worth the risk and that it would be a profound disservice to India if Bt brinjal were allowed to enter her food supply."
Although an indefinite moratorium was placed on GM brinjal in 2010 due to safety concerns, trials of Bt brinjal have continued.
India is a centre of origin and genetic diversity of brinjal. Contamination of the richest germplasm in the world with artificial DNA would be a serious waste of an important long-term resource.
Buy organic cotton when you can.
What India needs to apply is a 'Farming Systems Approach' to its evaluation of GM crops before it's conned again by hype. The Farming Systems Approach is described in GM STAPLES IN AFRICA - February 2022.
Background
[1] NON-GM COTTON TO THE RESCUE - June, 2019
Sources:
Starting in 2002, the original American cotton was removed from the market to make way for 'Bt' insecticide-generating GM cotton.
Bt cotton is sold with promises of high yield due to its immunity to bollworm damage and high returns due to its lower need for pesticide applications. Indeed, in 2018, one Indian government minister claimed "Since the introduction of Bt cotton in 2002, there has been a near doubling of cotton production in the country".
However, this grand GM crop 'success' in fact referred to a doubling of the Bt cotton crops grown, not to yield (kilograms of lint per hectare), nor to farmers' profits (net income per hectare). The increased growing of GM cotton was probably driven by the promises of reduced pesticide application along with the elimination of damage from a major pest, plus (as suggested by a study in 2019) fashion and peer pressure amongst farmers [1]. It was almost certainly also due to the fact that no other cotton seed was available.
The reality on the ground is that cotton yields have stagnated. They have only stayed as high as they are due to enhanced fertiliser use, increased irrigation, pesticide seed-treatment, and because the monsoons have been good.
Net returns are poor for the farmer because cotton prices are unstable, seed must be purchased every year and chemical inputs are substantial and expensive.
In the last five years, various Bt cotton-growing districts have reported up to 100% crop loss due to attack by pink bollworm, the key pest that the GM crop was supposed to be protected from. Support for farmers suffering these devastating losses has not been good.
There's a number of knock-on negative effects of growing Bt cotton.
An increased need for chemical fertilisers, is a direct risk to the health of farmers applying it, and an indirect risk to the wider population and environment especially through water pollution. Chemical fertilisers are responsible for soil degradation. Excess nitrogen fertiliser in the soil is converted by microbes to nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 300 times as potent as CO2,, contributing to climate change.
Boosted by inefficient water use and pollution in India, Bt cotton hybrids have an exceptionally large water foot-print.
That GM Indian cotton T-shirt you're wearing represents the exportation of 2,300 litres of precious Indian water. Your American cotton T-shirt has extracted only 800 litres of water from its country of origin.
Although cotton is grown on only about 5% of India's croplands, as much as 55% of pesticide expenditure is on this one crop.
Inhalation of toxic pesticides is a major health risk for farm-workers. Indeed, in the last two years, pesticide manufacturer, Syngenta, has been taken to court in it country of origin, Switzerland, by families of Indian victims killed or severely injured by the Company's insecticide 'Polo' (active ingredient diafenthiuron) which they had sprayed on their Bt cotton crop.
Survivors of Polo poisoning have reported severe post-spraying symptoms such as temporary blindness, nausea, breathing difficulties, neurological and muscular complaints and even unconsciousness for some days. In some people, the effects continue and have reduced their ability to work and earn.
Sygenta has since prohibited the export of five problematic pesticides, including diafenthiuron.
Hybrid seeds and inputs don't come cheap: money-lenders are essential to prop up the system.
One of the most concerning offshoots of Bt cotton in India and the hyped claims of its benefits, is that it's now being used as a template for the introduction of Bt brinjal (aubergine), a major vegetable eaten fresh and across all sections of Indian society.
Safety concerns were spelled out by Professor David Schubert in 2009: "It is virtually certain that within the vast Indian population a large number of people eating Bt brinjal are going to be or will become allergic to this foreign protein; this number cannot be predicted and some of the immune responses will likely be severe, causing anaphylaxis and possibly fatalities. Since there will be no way of tracking these adverse reactions within the population, and since once Bt brinjal is commercially grown, its genetic presence within a major calorie source for the Indian population is irreversible, a simple decision has to be made. Is the negligible benefit of Bt brinjal worth the clear risk? My conclusion is that it is not worth the risk and that it would be a profound disservice to India if Bt brinjal were allowed to enter her food supply."
Although an indefinite moratorium was placed on GM brinjal in 2010 due to safety concerns, trials of Bt brinjal have continued.
India is a centre of origin and genetic diversity of brinjal. Contamination of the richest germplasm in the world with artificial DNA would be a serious waste of an important long-term resource.
OUR COMMENT
Although hardly available, desi cotton is still valued and commands a higher price at the mills. It's clearly a more robust crop, better suited to the Indian farming scenario, and well suited to organic production methods. In recent years, India has grown two-thirds of the world's organic cotton. There's clearly a potential growth market there which would really support Indian smallholder farmers.Buy organic cotton when you can.
What India needs to apply is a 'Farming Systems Approach' to its evaluation of GM crops before it's conned again by hype. The Farming Systems Approach is described in GM STAPLES IN AFRICA - February 2022.
Background
[1] NON-GM COTTON TO THE RESCUE - June, 2019
Sources:
- Colin
Todhunter, Bt cotton in India is a GMO template for a "monumental
irreversible catastrophe", GM Watch 1.10.20
- Rohit
Prakh, Cotton Harvests Nearly Doubled Since Bt Cotton: Minister. Fact:
Yields Have Stagnated, www.factchecker.in, 18.06.18
- Carla Romeu-Dalmau, et al., June 2015, Asiatic
cotton can generate similar economic benefits to Bt cotton under rainfed conditions,
Nature Plants
- Poisoning survivors and advocates demand
Syngenta to acknowledge liability of its pesticide Polo, PAN Asia
Pacific, 29.10.21
- Prabhjit Singh, In Punjab and Haryana, Acres of
Infestation Leave Cotton Farmers Devastated, https://thewire.in,
1.11.21
- The Life Cycle Assessment of Organic Water - A
Global Average, Textile Exchange, 2014
- Lyla Bavadam, Victims of 2017 pesticide
poisoning Maharashtra file cases in Switzerland against Syngenta,
Https://frontline.thehindu.com, 30.09.20
- Stephen Leahy, World Water Day the cost of cotton in water-challenged India, The Guardian, 20.03.15
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