Bt Cotton- Thestory so far

26 th March 2002: TheGenetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) (under the Ministry of Environmentand Forests) granted conditional approval to Mahyco-Monsanto forcommercialization of Bt Cotton varieties in six states of India; approval fornorthern states not granted.

  August2002 onwards: Stories of failurestart pouring in. Bt Cotton fails on various counts, including the fact that itis no solution for various cotton-farming related problems. Most important is afailure on the agronomic front, which in India is an important parameter forapproval of GE crops.

  November2002 – An “Expert Team” visitsthe six states where Bt Cotton has been commercialized to assess theperformance. They visit Andhra Pradesh, as part of this mandate, on November 10 th and 11 th 2002.

  16 th December 2002- T R Baalu, Ministerfor Environment and Forests, Government of India declares that the Bt Cottonperformance is “satisfactory “ in the country, in a statement made to RajyaSabha. This statement is based on a study conducted by the “expert team”from the MoEF.

  7 th January 2003 – Greenpeace gets hold of the “expert team’s” report for Andhra Pradesh. Greenpeacemeets the very same farmers whose ‘testimonies’ had been reported in thestudy, after they’d been met by the expert team. The farmers, to our uttersurprise, tell very different stories from those recorded in the government’sstudy.

  8 th January 2003 – The Greenpeace investigation team records farmers’ testimonies on video – theymince no words when describing the failure of their crops or incidence of pests.There is now evidence to show that the expert committee has misrepresented thefarmers.

  11 th January 2003 – Greenpeace holds a press conference inDelhi to screen a 7 min film “The Government Lies to the Nation” withregard to the real story of the farmers from Andhra whose testimonies had beendistorted by the “Expert Committee”.

6 th February 2003 - Greenpeace has a meeting with Minister T.R. Baalu and members ofthe GEAC. The Minister first refuses to look at the film – he questions theauthenticity of the film, asking “How do I know who is on tape? One Reddy ( acommon name in Andhra Pradesh ) will look the same as another Reddy!” Whenhe does see the “Government lies to the Nation” film, he responds by sayingthat ”farmers in this country usually lie”. Greenpeace demands:

TheMinister offers no assurance on any count.

  2 nd March 2003 – The AgriculturalOfficer (AO) of Parkala mandal, Warangal district, Andhra Pradesh is one of thefirst to put out an official statement on their findings, after Andhra Pradeshconducts a comprehensive survey of all the Bt farmers in the state: he announces95% failure of Bt Cotton.

  3 rd March 2003 - Greenpeace holdsa press conference in Warangal (Andhra Pradesh) to discuss the losses incurredby farmers in the state, and the failure of Bt cotton based on the studyconducted by Greenpeace. Bt Cotton farmers testify before the media.

  3 rd March 2003 – Andhra PradeshAgriculture Minister announces on a national television channel that Bt cottonhas not yielded positive and encouraging results in Andhra Pradesh.

  4 th March 2003 – Greenpeace andSarvodaya Youth Organisation organize a farmer-to-farmer workshop to discuss BtCotton, in Kapulakanaparti village, Warangal. Here, farmers signed a petitiondemanding compensation for failure of Bt cotton.

  6 th March 2003 – Greenpeace andSarvodaya Youth Organisation organize another farmer-to-farmer workshop inYellutla village, Warangal District. The farmers discussed Non-Pesticidal andnon-GM alternatives to Bt Cotton.

  10 th March 2003 – Greenpeace isinformed in a telephone conversation with Dr. Ranjani Warrier, Member Secretaryof GEAC that a reassessment of Bt Cotton is to be carried out in 6 states, daysafter media reports about the same.

  10 th March 2003 - Andhra PradeshGovernment announces compensation to Bt farmers in the Assembly.

  12 th March 2003 – The Greenpeace study on the agronomics of BtCotton in Karnataka is ready. The story of the 35 farmers in Raichur, Haveri andDharwad (Karnataka) is not very different from Andhra.

 

THESTORY OF LIES AND FALSE PROPAGANDA CONTINUES, HOWEVER, AS THE COMPANY IS ALLOWEDTO MAKE GREATER INROADS INTO THE INDIAN AGRICULTURAL MARKETS…..