Dr Hans Herren's presentation http://www.kisanswaraj.in/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Hans-Herren-Webinar-on-Bt-Cotton-in-India-CSA-Jatan-ASHA-24th-Aug.pdf
INTERNATIONAL WEBINAR ON BT COTTON IN INDIA HIGHLIGHTS THE FAILURE OF
THE TECHNOLOGY
New Delhi, August 24th 2020: A high profile panel of scientists who
spoke in an international webinar on Bt cotton in India presented evidence
to show that the technology was ill-suited to Indian conditions and has
failed to deliver on its promises. The Webinar organised by Centre for
Sustainable Agriculture and Jatan was focused on an evidence based
evaluation of 18 years of approved Bt cotton cultivation in India. Amongst
the scientists in the panel were Dr Andrew Paul Gutierrez, Senior Emeritus
Professor in the College of Natural Resources at the University of
California at Berkeley in USA; Dr Keshav Kranthi, former Director of
Central Institute for Cotton Research in India; Dr Peter Kenmore, former
FAO Representative in India and Dr Hans Herren, World Food Prize Laureate.
Speaking in the webinar, Dr Peter Kenmore said that Bt cotton is an
aging pest control technology. “It follows the same path worn down by
generations of insecticide molecules from arsenic to DDT to BHC to
endosulfan to monocrotophos to carbaryl to imidacloprid. In-house research
aims for each molecule to be packaged biochemically, legally, and
commercially before it is released and promoted. Corporate and public
policy actors then claim yield increases, but deliver no more than
temporary pest suppression, secondary pest release and pest resistance.
Recurrent cycles of crises sparked citizens’ public action and sprouted
ecological field research by committed scientists. When this research is
taken on by farmers’ groups, they create locally-adapted agroecological
strategies. Their agroecology now gathers global support from citizens’
groups, governments, and UN-FAO. Their robust local solutions in Indian
cotton do not require any new molecules, including endo-toxins like in Bt
cotton”, he said.
Bt cotton is the first and only GM (genetically modified) crop that has
been approved in India. It has been cultivated in India for more than 20
years, first illegally then legally. Political leaders and technocrats are
often heard to be presenting a positive, hyped picture of Bt cotton in
India. On the ground, farmers are looking for other crops or non-Bt
varieties of cotton to cultivate as an alternative to Bt cotton.
Professor Andrew Paul Gutierrez, considered one of the best quantitative
cotton systems ecologists in the world, made a presentation on the
ecological reasons as to why hybrid Bt cotton failed in India. He pointed
out that India could have easily learnt from the mistakes that happened in
California in the 1960s and 70s, where the pest outbreak was mainly
insecticide-induced. The long season Bt cotton introduced in India was
incorporated into hybrids that trapped farmers into biotech and insecticide
treadmills, he showed. “The cultivation of long-season hybrid Bt cotton in
rainfed areas is unique to India. It is a value capture mechanism that does
not contribute to yield, is a major contributor to low yield stagnation,
and contributes to increasing production costs”, he explained. Prof.
Gutierrez asserted that increases in cotton farmer suicides are related to
the resulting economic distress. “A viable solution to the current GM
hybrid system is adoption of improved non-GM high-density short-season
fertile cotton varieties”, he said.
Presenting data on yields, insecticide usage, irrigation, fertiliser
usage and pest incidence and resistance, Dr Keshav Kranthi who is currently
with International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) said, “A critical
analysis of official statistics (eands.dacnet.nic.in & cotcorp.gov.in)
shows that despite increase in area from 11.5% in 2005 and 37.8% in 2006 to
a near saturation point after 2011, Bt-hybrid technology has not been
providing any tangible benefits in India in the past 15 years either in
yield or insecticide usage. Cotton yields are the lowest in the world in
Maharashtra, for example, despite being saturated with Bt-Hybrids and
highest usage of fertilisers. Cotton yields of Maharashtra are lesser than
rainfed Africa wherein there is hardly any usage of technologies such as Bt
or hybrids or fertilisers or pesticides or irrigation. Indian cotton yields
rank 36th in the world and have been stagnant in the past 15 years and
insecticide usage has been constantly increasing after 2005 despite an
increase in area under Bt-cotton. Research also shows that the Bt-hybrid
technology has failed the test of sustainability with resistance in pink
bollworm to Bt-cotton, increasing sucking pest infestation, increasing
trend in insecticide and fertiliser usage, increasing costs and negative
net-returns in 2014 and 2015”.
Dr Hans Herren who has an MSc in agronomy and plant breeding and a PhD
in biological control, who is also a Laureate of the Right Livelihood
Award and was the Co-Chair of IAASTD (International Assessment of
Agricultural Knowledge, Science & Technology for Development) said, “GMOs
exemplify the case of a technology searching for an application. To modify
the genome of plants and animals serves only the short-term drive for
profit at the cost of farmers, consumers and food security in the medium
and long term. The technology is about treating symptoms, rather than
dealing with the problem's root causes, i.e., taking a systems approach to
create resilient, productive and bio-diverse food systems in the widest
sense and to provide sustainable and affordable solutions in it's social,
environmental and economic dimensions. Failure of Bt cotton is not just a
failure of a product or technology behind it, it is a classic
representation of what unsound science of plant protection and faulty
direction of agricultural development can lead to. Bt-hybrid technology in
india represents an error-driven policy that has led to the denial and
non-implementation of the real solutions for the revival of cotton in
India, which lie in HDSS (High Density Short Season) planting of Non-Bt/
GMO cotton, in pure line varieties of our native Desi species and American
cotton species. The only way we as members of the earth system will survive
and also be able to meet our SDG targets, is by transforming agriculture
and the food system to Agroecology, which includes regenerative, organic,
biodynamic, permaculture, and natural farming practices. We need to push
aside the vested interests blocking the transformation with the baseless
arguments of ‘the world needs more food’ and design and implement policies
that are forward looking, deal with the Climate Crisis and help heal the
COVID-19 pandemic aftermath. We have all the needed scientific and
practical evidence that the agroecological approaches to food and nutrition
security work successfully”.
There are numerous genetically modified food crops in the pipeline of
approval and experimentation in India and the ones waiting foremost for
regulatory clearance for commercial cultivation include a new Bt brinjal
event (other than Mahyco’s Bt brinjal EE-1), Delhi University’s herbicide
tolerant GM mustard, Monsanto’s herbicide tolerant and Bt GM maize etc.
The International Webinar was organised by Centre for Sustainable
Agriculture and Jatan, in collaboration with Alliance for Sustainable &
Holistic Agriculture (ASHA) and India For Safe Food and witnessed the
participation of hundreds of scientists from all over the world, in
addition to farmers and other citizens.
For more information, contact :
Dr G V Ramanjaneyulu at 9000699702; Kapil Shah at
7567916751;
Kavitha Kuruganti at 8880067772.
BRIEF INTRODUCTION OF SPEAKERS
Prof. Dr. Andrew Paul Gutierrez FRES is Senior Emeritus Professor in the
College of Natural Resources at the University of California at Berkeley in
USA. He was founder of the University of California Integrated Pest
Management Program and Associate Director of the National NSF/EPA/USDA IPM
Projects. He is CEO of the Centre for the Analysis of Sustainable
Agricultural systems (CasasGlobal.org) with on-going research programs
globally on various crop systems. He is considered one of the best
quantitative cotton systems ecologists in the world and has been working on
cotton and its ecosystems for over half a century and across five
continents.
Prof. Dr. Hans R. Herren, Founder and President of the Biovision
Foundation is President of the Millennium Institute in the USA. He was the
Director-General of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and
Ecology, Kenya until 2005; and Director Plant Health Division at the
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Nigeria (1979-1994). He
has been awarded, among others, the Right Livelihood Award 2013; World Food
Prize 1995 and Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement 2003. He has NAS
and the Third World Academy of Sciences membership and is member of
IPES-Food and the IFOAM-OI World Board. He was the co-chair of the UN and
World Bank-sponsored International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge,
Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD, 2009).
Dr. Peter E. Kenmore is a MacArthur Fellow (Genius Award) for his work
on IPM in green revolution rice, former Head of FAO/Plant Protection, and
former FAO Ambassador to India. Kenmore was the Founder of the
internationally renowned Farmer Field School program in Asia. He had also
served as Executive Secretary of Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed
Consent (PIC) in International Trade in Pesticides, an FAO-UNEP global
treaty which coordinates the global programme on Highly Hazardous
Pesticides (HHPs).
Dr. Keshav Kranthi is the Head of Technical Information Section of the
International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) based in Washington, USA.
Earlier to this, he was the Director of the Central Institute of Cotton
Research (CICR), Nagpur, a premier institute in cotton research in India
run by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). His main research
interests are insect molecular biology, toxicology, ecology, immunology and
biotechnology. Dr. Kranthi is the author of numerous publications on cotton
and has received several awards, including the International Cotton
Researcher of the Year Award, presented by the ICAC in 2009.
