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16 Bollgard cotton hybrids cleared

Special Correspondent

This provides access to farmers in north and central regions to 36 hybrids

BANGALORE: The Genetic Engineering and Approval Committee (GEAC) functioning under the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has approved 16 new Bollgard cotton hybrids in north and central India.

The approval provides access to farmers across these regions to 36 Bollgard cotton hybrids in the 2006 planting season, starting June.

The GEAC gave its approval to seven new seed companies — Ganga Kaveri, Ajeet, Tulasi, Vikram, Vikki, Agrotech, Emergent Genetics and Parvardhan — this year along with the existing companies Mahyco, Nuziveedu, Ankur and Rasi. These companies are sub-licensees of Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (India) Limited (MMB), a 50-50 marketing joint venture between Mahyco and U.S. seed giant Monsanto Holdings Private Limited. MMB has co-licensing agreements with a number of Indian companies to bring Bollgard hybrids to Indian farmers, the company said in a statement here. It said it has "followed rigorous and large scale field trials conducted in accordance with the GEAC guidelines."

The number of Bollgard hybrids available in north India has now increased from 6 to 12 and in central India from 12 to 22.

Monsanto's BT cotton is the only genetically modified crop allowed in India.

BT stands for bacillus thuringiensis, a bacterium whose gene is injected into cotton seeds to make them resistant to boll worms, which are common in India.

Since its launch in India in 2002, Bollgard has been planted by over a million farmers across 3.1 million acres in nine cotton-growing States.

Monsanto sold 1.3 million packets of BT cotton in 2004. But critics say the seeds are environmentally hazardous and could contaminate the genes of native varieties through cross pollination and eventually make farmers poorer.

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