Washington India is expected to replace China as the world’s largest soybean oil importer, the US Department of Agriculture said and projected India can become the third largest rice exporter by 2012. “India is projected to replace China as the world’s largest soybean oil importer. In the projections, India’s soybean oil imports climb 28 per cent to 1.2 million tons,” it said. Factors that contribute to the continued growth of India’s soyoil imports include burgeoning demand for vegetable oils and a limited capacity to expand domestic oilseed production.

In a major boost to Gujarat’s big farmers, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) of the Government of India has approved commercial distribution of a new variety of Bt Cotton seed, developed jointly by US multinational Monsanto, Gujarat Seed Supply Corporation (GSSC) and Navsari Agricultural University. The new seed is expected to raise cotton productivity by up to 30 per cent as against the current Bt Cotton yield of 11 quintals per acre. The new seed has been developed by injecting Bt genes into two premium local cotton seed varieties called Sankar 6 and Sankar 8.

here’s ugly fact #1: Most of the yield increase happened between 2002-5 when Bt comprised between 0.4-5.6% of India’s cotton. Obviously Bt couldn’t have accounted for more than a tiny speck of the national rise. [...] here comes ugly fact #2 - in the last 4 years, as Bt has risen from 67% to 92% of India’s cotton, yields have dropped steadily. [...] Then the ugly fact #3: since 2007, yields in Andhra Pradesh have dropped back to below where they were before farmers started adopting Bt cotton.

The Maharashtra government has ordered the Indian unit of Bayer Crop Science, the world’s largest agrochemicals company, to pay 45 lakh as compensation to 164 farmers as one of its BT cotton hybrids did not deliver the promised yield, the first instance of a seed company being asked to make good farmers’ losses. “We welcome the fact that the government has taken the side of farmers,” said Kavitha Kuruganthi of the Association for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, an umbrella body for farmer-rights NGOs.

Intending to boost domestic Bt cotton production, the Rajasthan government is planning to adopt several measures like distributing free certified seeds to the farmers in the tribal region in the southern part of the State, including Udaipur, and also to provide training to them. The State government intends to encourage the farmers as well as tribals, particularly in Udaipur and surrounding regions like Kotda, Malvi, Jhadol, Kherwada, Vallabhnagar and Salumber to undertake cultivation of Bt cotton in order to check migration of child labour from Rajasthan.

Four years ago, 15-year-old Sugna Kumari thought she would never get out alive from the sexual exploitation she suffered in Gujarat. She was also made to work in a cotton field. The plight of Damini, 16, was no better. She was forced into prostitution and taken to several states. The two tribal girls of Rajasthan are victims of a larger racket. Over 1,00,000 children in Udaipur have been sexually exploited and used as bonded labour in the Bt cotton fields of neighbouring Gujarat.

Foundation for Biotechnology Awareness and Education and the Association of Biotechnology-Led Enterprises will hold a conference on ‘Biotechnology crops for food security in India' in February 27 in Bangalore. [...] ”The moratorium on Bt brinjal and delay in functionalising Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India are results of opposition by anti-technology activists. This is keeping us away from benefiting from biotech,” FBAE said.

If the malnourished in India formed a country, it would be the world's fifth largest — almost the size of Indonesia. [...] Yet, the Indian elite shrieks at the prospect of formalising a universal right to food. Notwithstanding the collective moral deficit this reveals, it also shows that the millions of Indians whose food rights are so flagrantly violated are completely voiceless in the policy space. India's problem is not only to secure food, but to secure food justice.

WHEN the much-awaited public sector Bt or genetically modified cotton was released for cultivation in 2009, there was celebration in the scientific establishment. [...] Now, almost two years down the line the full details of the unsavoury episode have emerged and, according to old ICAR hands, this is possibly the biggest research scandal involving as it does the Indian Agriculture Research Institute’s prestigious National Research Centre for Plant Biotechnology.

"Monsanto's GM maize trials have been going on for several seasons now in various locations around the country. It took a rare scientist in one monitoring team to point out the fact that planting of the herbicide-tolerant GM maize took place without permission from competent authorities! What is more damning is that there is no evidence of any discussion or action by the regulators on this finding. This clearly demonstrates that the regulators are unconcerned about biosafety violations or contamination and are protecting and supporting offenders like Monsanto", said Kavitha Kuruganti, Member, Coalition for a GM-Free India.