Journal or Publishing Institution: Journal of Research in Agriculture
Author(s): Ebenezer, K.S., and Kannan, R.
Article Type: Report
Record ID: 588
Abstract: Agriculture Times of yore in AgBioForum, current science and many agriculture journal issues have been discussed Bt cotton safety (Manjunath 2011) controversies (Geeta Bharathan 2001), success (Camille Gonsalves 2007), resistance issues (Akshaya et al., 2010) and cost-benefit analysis (Manjunath 2011) in India a question rose as to “Bt or Non-Bt”. Therefore, a typical collective question must always come to mind that, who pays the costs can reaps the benefits. Nevertheless, in Bt cotton, that farmer pays the cost in pain, company reaps the gain, however, and this is an important time to percept out some bitter truths and promises of Bt cotton (SAGE 2011), a punitive authenticity hidden behind the dreadful publicity created by the biotech industry. The most poignant tales from south Indian farmer’s burns out the economic promise of Bt cotton was an utter lie. Bt cotton brings the soil toxicity i.e. it kills the soil microorganism (Robb 2009) and respiratory diseases (Sagari. et al., 2010) and the loss of animals, when they had grazed Bt cotton stalks (Venkateshwarlu 2010), these are the recent reports from southern zone Bt experiences farmers (Camille Gonsalves 2007) faced many problems in quantity of yields, pesticides and imperfection of genetic engineering. The plant had showed good height and full of branches, but as years progress the plant size have been decreases (Mayee 2003), today the plant height is too low we can sit and pick the cotton ball. The dealer’s, has suggested that Bt does not require pesticides but recent research “Bt Crops and Insect Resistance”, the findings had showed that the levels of toxin emitted by Bt crops varies and at times is insufficient to kill the targeted pests. This could lead to greater use of pesticides. There has been reported that more number of Lepidoptera mainly butterflies were presented in the Madurai District (Alagumurugan et al., 2011). There has been a great variation between the some species like Lepidoptera (Sivasankaran et al., 2011) Furthermore, fluctuations in the efficacy of Bt crops to the extent that some insects survive or provide opportunities for insects to develop resistance to the Bt toxin and yield has been decreased as well as expenditure was increased year by year (Vageeshbabu et al., 2011). In addition to these problems, picking cotton resulted in skin rashes, itching, reeling sensation etc (Robb 2009), this became double-edged laborers problem too. According to the cost, the Bt cotton seed was three times higher than our normal cotton seed (Carl 2010). The farmers, agriculturist and environmental scientist were scared to use genetically modified (GM) Bt crops, because it gives potential impacts such as genetic erosion and loss of biodiversity.
Keywords: Bt cotton, safety, south India, farmers, pesticide use, efficacy
Citation: Ebenezer, K.S., and Kannan, R., 2012. BT Cotton: Bitter Truths-Falter in Southern Zone of India. Journal of Research in Agriculture, 1, pp. 55-57.
