Is Indias Record Cotton Production Attributable To Bt Cotton?
The Bt Cotton industry is going to town with the news that India has touched record cotton production this year with 250 lakh bales, an increase from 244 lakh bales last year. Notwithstanding the contestation of these claims of record production by some news reports [of lower production in India in 2006-07 than previous years and the artificial depressing of prices for farmers by such claims], the industry is also claiming that such increases in production and productivity are attributable to the increasing adoption of Bt Cotton in the country. Coalition for GM-Free India rejects these false and convenient claims by the industry and its supporters in the government (including the agriculture minister), which would only mislead farmers into believing that Bt Cotton contributes to increase in yields. The biotech industry is using such false claims as part of their marketing strategy for pushing more Bt Cotton onto Indian farmers. Data on the Cotton area in the country (USDA data), Bt Cot
