The remarkable success of the transgenic Bt cotton – which carries an alien insect-killer gene borrowed from soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt – and the pace at which it has spread in India are unparalleled in the world. [...] Besides, it has denied farmers their legitimate right to retain and use self-produced seeds. [...] The blame lies with the way in which this technology has been deployed to produce only Bt hybrids and the virtual mono-propping of these hybrids in the absence of equally valuable alternatives.