India made its long-awaited entry into commercial agricultural biotechnology in March 2002 with the approval of three Bt-cotton hybrids for commercial cultivation. In about 6 years, the area under Bt-cotton has increased by more than 210 times to record 6.2 m ha and the number of Bt-farmers by 190 times to reach 3.8 m in 2007.
People may never look at brinjal in the same way again. In the last few months, this innocuous vegetable has garnered much public attention and so did the research and development happening in the field of agriculture. R&D in agriculture which usually misses to impress the media or the people assumed centre stage in the weeks preceding the declaration of Jairam Ramesh on the fate of Bt Brinjal.
This study presents the findings of research into the global socio-economic and environmental impact of biotech crops in the thirteen years since they were first commercially planted on a significant area.
The Andhra Pradesh High Court has posted to April 22 the hearings on a petition filed by Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech (MMB) against the Andhra Pradesh Government over fixation of Bt cotton trait value.
MMB has contended that the Government has no role in fixing the trait value and appealed to the court to restrain the State from fixing the trait value.
Wants farmers to let cattle graze on Bt cotton fields.
K.V. Kurmanath
A letter from Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech (India) Limited to seed manufacturers, advising them to ask farmers to let the cattle graze on Bt cotton fields, has triggered a row in the ongoing debate on Bt cotton. Ahead of the kharif season sales, the company said the grazing should be allowed at the end of the crop season.
Monsanto has revealed that a common insect pest has developed resistance to its flagship genetically modified (GM) product in India. The agricultural biotechnology leader says it "detected unusual survival" of pink bollworms that fed on cotton containing the Cry1Ac gene from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, which codes for a protein that's toxic to many insect pests.
If the nationwide furore over Bt brinjal was driven by the fear of unsafe food being pushed down the throat, the proposed Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (brai) bill goes a step further to silence all opposition. The bill will bring about changes in regulating the research, transport, import, manufacture and use of genetically modified (GM) products in the country.
