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Harish Damodaran

NEW DELHI, June 16

FIRST, it was the Jalna (Aurangabad)-based Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Ltd's (Mahyco) genetically-modified (GM) Bt cotton hybrids — Mech-12, Mech-162 and Mech-184 — that received the nod for commercial cultivation in kharif 2002.

Now, it is the turn of Rasi Seeds Company Ltd to obtain the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee's (GEAC) approval to conduct large-scale open field evaluation trials of its transgenic RCH-2 Bt hybrid under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research's (ICAR) auspices.

The Salem-based company has also been allowed to produce seeds of the hybrid to meet the sowing coverage requirement for one lakh acres.

Assuming that the trials are successful, these seeds can be commercially released during the kharif 2004 season. Further, the GEAC has permitted Rasi to undertake multiplication of the Bt versions of its RCH-20, RCH-138, RCH-134 and RCH-144 cotton hybrids in an area of 10 hectares in the current season to enable the company generate seeds for large-scale trials in kharif 2004.

Besides Mahyco and Rasi, there are five other companies waiting to launch their own Bt cotton hybrids, which are genetically-engineered to confer `in-built' resistance to the dreaded American bollworm pest. These include the Nagpur-based Ankur Seeds, the Hyderabad-based Vikram Seeds, Ajeet Seeds, Krishi Dhan (both from Jalna) and India Seeds Holding (ISH).

The last mentioned is a Mauritius-incorporated associate of two US-based private equity investment firms, Hicks Muse Tate Inc and Emergent Genetics LLC. ISH holds a majority stake in the Jalna-based Mahendra Hybrid Seeds Company (acquired in February 2000), besides having, only in March this year, bought 74 per cent of Hindustan Lever's share in Paras Extra Growth Seeds for Rs 115 crore.

What is common to the GM hybrids of all these companies - who control a major chunk of the country's Rs 400 crore annual cotton hybrid seeds business - is that they incorporate `Bollgard', the specific Bt gene construct patented and owned by the US-based life sciences giant, Monsanto. The Indian licensee for this gene construct — encoding the cry1Ac insect control protein derived from a soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) — is Mahyco Monsanto Biotech India Ltd (MMB), a 50:50 joint venture between Monsanto and Mahyco.

MMB, in turn, has signed commercially agreements with each of these companies for incorporating the Bollgard gene into their existing proprietary hybrids.

Rasi's RCH-2, for instance, is an established cotton hybrid that was released in 1999 and notified by the Agriculture Ministry in April 2000. By back-crossing the Bollgard gene with RCH-2, Monsanto is essentially `adding value' to Rasi's own hybrid, just as it has done for Mahyco's Mech-12 or Mech-184.

In other words, Monsanto's Bollgard gene construct is becoming something similar to Microsoft's Windows XP operating system. Monsanto is looking at a scenario where its Bollgard gene is inserted into the existing hybrids of all major cotton breeders, just as virtually every PC runs on Windows XP. "We are willing to sub-licence the Bollgard gene to any breeder who wants to incorporate it into his hybrid. These could even include public sector breeders and agricultural universities", said Mr Bipin Solanki, Deputy Managing Director, MMB.

Significantly, MMB is currently `in talks' with Proagro Seeds Company Ltd as well for collaboration in Bt cotton technology, even as the latter is awaiting GEAC clearance for commercial release of its own transgenic mustard hybrids.

Monsanto's emergence as a pure gene supplier (`software') from being a seed producer per se also fits in with its international strategy. In December 1999, Monsanto sold its entire stake in the Tennessee-headquartered Stoneville Pedigreed Seed Company (which actually pioneered Bt cotton planting in the US) to the same two US-based private equity firms, which have acquired Mahendra and Paras Seeds here!

The all-India area under cotton is roughly nine million hectares (22 million acres), corresponding to a seed requirement of 22 million packets, of which hybrids account for about 10 million packets. MMB officials envisage the Bollgard gene to cover 30-40 per cent of the hybrid segments, which means 3-4 million packets annually.

In the 2002 season, Bollgard did a business of 1.05 lakh packets, which is expected to touch 6-8 lakh packets this year, translating into sales of Rs 100-125 crore (each 450 gram Bollgard packet costs Rs 1,600 for the farmer, compared to Rs 350-400 for normal hybrids). The figures will go up further, once the Bt hybrids of Rasi, IHL, Ankur Seed, etc also enter the market.

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