Nagpur: Incidents of pink bollworm attack on Bt cotton this year again have alarmed the agriculture authorities. The state agriculture commissioner has taken up the matter with the Union government and has even suggested reconsideration of approval given to genetically modified Bt cotton seeds that are supposed to be resistant to bollworm and other infestations.

The chief of Vasantrao Naik Shetkari Swavalamban Mission (the state government task force to deal with farm distress) Kishore Tiwari has claimed this year the situation could be worse as it is found that the Bt cotton seeds were now susceptible to attack of not only pink worm, but also thips , mealybug and regular bollworm. With over 40 lakh hectares under cotton cultivation, Maharashtra has largest area of cotton crop in the country.

The state agriculture commissioner S Kendrekar is believed to have apprised deputy director (quality control) of Union agriculture ministry on August 1 about the situation. According to him, last year too incidents of pink worm attacks were reported and confirmed by various government agencies and experts of city-based Central Institute of Cotton Research. Following that, ban was imposed on seeds of one company that had licence from Monsanto, the multinational that pioneered and introduced genetically altered Bt Cotton seeds under brand names BG I and later BG II.

New Delhi, July 14 (IANS) Rajasthan, India’s top mustard producing state on Friday, expressed its reservations over commercial introduction of Genetically Modified (GM) variety of mustard, saying output from the traditional varieties was adequate.

Rajasthan’s Agriculture Minister Prabhu Lal Saini said it did not want to be dependent on any company for seeds.

“Production of mustard is quite good in our state. We are getting 32-33 quintals per hectare from the traditional varieties and oil content (recovery) is also between 40-42 per cent. The output from the traditional varieties is adequate and it is highly nutritious. Then why do we need GM seeds? We do not want to disturb our parental seeds,” Saini told reporters here.

As to the issue of sorghum itself, there is absolutely no reason to believe that it needs GM protection.

Hyderabad: Expressing its shock at the Indian Institute of Millet Research in Hyderabad, developing transgenic sorghum (jowar), the Southern Action on Genetic Engineering has called on the Union Government to take a firm and unequivocal stand against GM (genetically modified) sorghum and to declare that it will not approve GM sorghum.

Southern Action on Genetic Engineering (SAGE) is a coalition of farmers, scientists, environmental activists and civil society groups from South India. “This would have been funny if it was not so tragic,” SAGE said in a letter to the Union Minister for Environment and Forests. Sorghum (jowar) is a crop that offers complete food and nutritional security to the populations of dry land India and rich fodder for its cattle, the letter said.

NEW DELHI: Joining hands with anti-GM groups from across the country, the senior Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan on Saturday wrote to environment minister Anil Madhav Dave, urging him to withhold his approval of genetically modified (GM) mustard's commercial cultivation.

Bhushan's letter comes two days after the central biotech regulator, Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), gave its green signal to the commercial release of GM mustard. The final decision is now on the environment minister's table who can either accept the regulator's recommendation or reject it. It is learnt that the ministry will go by the Supreme Court's ruling in a case challenging cultivation of GM mustard.

New Delhi: On the occasion of World Health Day, 7 April, Navdanya along with Swadeshi Jagran Manch appeals to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ban Monsanto on account of its illegal introduction of herbicide tolerant GMO Round-up Ready Flex Bt cotton (RR Bt Cotton). Round-up, a glyphosate-based herbicide has been declared a “probable carcinogen” by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Sri Lanka and many European countries have already banned glyphosate because of reported and probable deaths as well as diseases directly linked to the use of this herbicide.

Monsanto claims that the genetically modified cotton seeds they sell are superior. So why are so many people trying to switch?

Monsanto is losing millions of dollars now that farmers in India are switching to indigenous cotton seeds rather than Bt cotton.

The agrochemical company is known for pushing a form of Bt cotton in India for the last decade. They have been accused of manipulating laws in order to enter the Indian market.

Monsanto’s manipulation and greed in India has caused hundreds of thousands of Indian farmers to commit suicide. Between the years of 1995 and 2013, more than 300,000 farmer suicides occurred, many of which were linked to Monsanto. Farmers are forced to pay for Monsanto’s costly seeds, which then force them to pay for the expensive pesticides to effectively grow them, as Bt cotton’s pest resistant quality fades over time.

GENETICALLY MODIFIED mustard is not needed

The proposal to allow cultivation of the genetically modified (GM) oilseed mustard (Brassica juncea) DMH-11 (also tolerant to the herbicide, glufosinate ammonium) is based on the paradigm that conventional breeding techniques cannot produce hybrids with sufficient yields.

However, this paradigm doesn’t take into account recent advances with either conventional breeding or the production of hybrid varieties, both of which can produce high-yielding varieties.

After Bt cotton was introduced in India in 2003, it took no time for it to take the lion’s share in India’s cotton area, but 2016-17 saw the first steep decline in its attraction to the domestic growers of the fibre, reports Sandip Das in New Delhi.

Noted molecular biologist Pushpa M. Bhargava on Saturday said the commercial cultivation of Genetically Modified (GM) mustard would be "disastrous" as it would eventually open the doors for multinational corporations to control India's agriculture.

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The transgenic crop, Dhara Mustard Hybrid-11 (DMH-11) has been developed by the Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants (CGMCP), University of Delhi.

Currently, GM cotton is the only transgenic crop commercially available in fields.

A government committee in India has cleared genetically modified mustard seeds for commercial use, but it still needs final approval by politicians facing public opposition to the technology, Reuters reports.