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GM cotton story gets bigger -- `Uproot & destroy' begins on Gujarat farms

Vinod Mathew

GANDHINAGAR, Oct. 20

GUJARAT'S genetically-modified (GM) cotton story has taken a new twist with State Government officials today visiting farms and telling farmers they would have to ``uproot and destroy'' the crop.

According to farmers in the Dehgam taluk, some 30 km off the State capital, many of them have already reaped the first harvest. With the claims of a superior yield having been proven, the farmers were looking forward to a bumper crop when they got the ru de awakening.

A list prepared gives the names and addresses of six farmers in and around Gandhinagar, particularly in Dehgam taluk. All belong to the capital district of Gandhinagar.

The one thread of commonality linking the six farmers -- a two-member team of Dr C.D. Mayee, Director, Central Institute of Cotton Research, Nagpur, and Dr T.V. Ramanaiah from the Department of Biotechnology, Delhi, had visited all the six locations on O ctober 8.

It was found that the six farmers had been using `Navbharat 151' a cotton seed sold to them by local traders with the assurance of a vastly better yield and considerably less expenses on fertilisers and insecticides.

The seeds were allegedly supplied by an Ahmedabad-based private limited company, though there is still no information pertaining to the original source of the seed. The samples taken by the Central team from the six farms found that the crop tested posit ive for the genetically-engineered Cry 1 A gene.

Today, hordes of State Government officials reached their farms and told them of the impending order to ``uproot and destroy'' the existing cotton thus grown.

``We have been told that we will not be punished for using the superior quality cotton seed. It is our understanding that farmers in many other villages in and around Saurashtra have gone in for this crop. If the crop is to be seized then we will have to be adequately compensated,'' said one of the six villagers to have been put under the microscope by the Union Government team on October 8.

On October 18, the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee had ordered the Gujarat State Co-ordination Committee on Biotechnology to destroy much of the cotton grown on all these six locations. But the malaise had gone much deeper as the Gujarat Governmen t finally admitted that some 10,000 acres of land spread over of districts have been under cultivation using the genetically-modified (GM) cotton seed.

According to Mr P.K. Ghosh, Principal Secretary, Department of Environment and Forests, Gujarat, there is no more argument about whether the transgenic cotton crop has to be destroyed or not. ``We have to destroy it and the compensation package to the fa rmers has to be fixed,'' he said.

Meanwhile, the Green lobby has already got active in the State with a number of NGOs demanding an inquiry into the episode. ``It is Monsanto that has patent on the Bt gene cotton and so they have to be held accountable. The Indian company alone cannot be held responsible as the seeds, some 13,000 packets of 450 gm each, had to be sourced from the MNC,'' said Ms Vandana Shiva of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology in an interface with the media in Ahmedabad on Saturday.