INDIAN PERSPECTIVE: SUSTAINABILITY OF BT COTTON IS A MATTER OF CONCERN NOW!

It must have been in 2004 or 2005 that a farmer named Narayan Bhawsar from a village in the Central India phoned to arrange for single-toxin Bt cotton seed (expressing cry1Ac gene isolated from the soil bacterium,Bacillus thuringiensis).Like Narayan Bhawsar,many farmers were clamoring for Bt cotton seed as it was in short supply and sold at premium rates far above the market retail price.The Government of India had approved Bt cotton in March 2002 for cultivation based on MON531 event (ISAAA website/GM Approval Database/event/EventID =54) after Mahyco Monsanto Biotech Ltd.successfully demonstrated its efficacy against the cotton bollworm,Helicoverpa armigera in the agronomic trials and biosafety to the environment.