Bt Cotton in India: A Review of Adoption, Government Interventions and Investment Initiatives

Abstract

Cotton, often referred to as the White Gold, is an important cash crop of India and it plays a key role in the Indian economy since it provides livelihood to more than 60 million people by way of support in agriculture, processing and use of cotton in textiles (Barwale et al., 2004). It is being cultivated over an area of about 9.5 million hectares, which represents approximately a quarter of the global cotton area of 35 million hectares. Despite low productivity, India has become the largest producer as well as consumer of cotton, next only to China. The quantum leap in cotton production of India during the last one decade can be attributed to the introduction of Bt cotton in 2002. Bt cotton, the first genetically modified (GM) crop in India, was initially approved in India on March 26th 2002 for commercial cultivation in six states belonging to southern and central cotton cultivation zones of the country. The reason for the introduction of Bt cotton was to counter insect pests Helicoverpa armigera, commonly referred to as American Bollworm, which used to cause substantial damage to the crop, resulting in low productivity. Therefore, Mahyco (Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company), in collaboration with Monsanto, introduced Bt cotton technology into India. Bt cotton carries the Cry1Ac gene derived from the common soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki, which results in the expression of the Cry1Ac protein that confers resistance to the bollworm complex (Barwale et al., 2004). Bt cotton hybrids have exhibited excellent control of American Bollworm and reduced the use of insecticides. This has led to create ecofriendly environment without compromising on profitable yield (Manickam et al., 2008). In addition to reducing production cost and increasing profit, Bt cotton has lowered farming risk and improved farmer’s perspective in cultivating cotton crop. According to the latest figures released by the Union Agriculture Ministry for the year 2010-11, Bt cotton accounts for 88.44 per cent share in total area of 111.42 lakh hectares under cotton cultivation with Maharashtra, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh being the top cotton producers.