Minister of State for Agriculture Krishna Byre Gowda on Wednesday took on multinational seed company Monsanto and seed suppliers licensed by it for the alleged “lack of commitment and failure to maintain quality standards” which have resulted in loss of Bt cotton crop in the northern district of Raichur.
Speaking at a national-level biotechnology event, Bangalore India Bio 2016, here, he said, “Lack of due diligence and the failure to stick to quality standards” by the company and its licensed firms had led farmers into thinking that biotechnology itself was not good, though the technology was not at fault.
“This is not the way to advocate biotechnology,” he said. Participating at the event being organised jointly by the State government and various biotechnology organisations, the Minister said the State had been facing massive problems related to Bt cotton crop in the last two-and-a-half years. The trouble began in the kharif season of 2013 when the firms licensed by Monsanto made a “wrong claim” through pamphlets that their Bt cotton variety would have resistance to succulent pests though biotechnology did not provide for it, he alleged. This resulted in the government paying up compensation of Rs. 36 crore to the farmers who lost their crops.
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Again, in the kharif season of 2015, the Bt crop for which seeds had been supplied by the firms failed owing to pink bollworm attack, though they were supposed to have resistance to this, he pointed out. This, he alleged, was because of the failure to maintain quality standards. Both the MNC and its licensed seed supplying firms should take responsibility for it, he said.
In an obvious reference to the demand by the Bt sector to give a wider scope to it in farming, he said, “I hope there would be better commitment in not just pushing governments to take early decisions, but also making sure that the technology is adopted by farmers.”
Later, he told reporters that some biotechnology firms had now offered to work with the government to frame sharp rules to the seed legislation to ensure that the erring Bt seed companies did not have an escape route. Citing an example, he said presently, firms licensed by Monsanto had put forth riders such as farmers should provide a dose of pesticides after 110 days of crop duration. Such clauses were turning out to be tricky while initiating legal action against the company, he noted.
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State has been facing massive problems related to the crop in the last two-and-a-half years