Coimbatore, April 15 (PTI): BT cotton has neither caused any negative impact related to safety of human or animal or environment nor has there been any crop contamination or pest resistance any where in the world for the last 11 years, an expert in the field and a key member of Mahyco-Monsanto team has claimed.

In fact, safety had been accorded the highest priority in biotechnology and in the last five years of its commercial cultivation in the country and for 11 years in on thousands of hectares in several other countries, it has an impeccable global safety record as are the other BT-crops, T M Manjunath in his just released book +Q and A on BT-Cotton India: Answers to more than 70 questions on all aspects,+ maintained.

The detractors of biotechnology did not seem to take cognizance of the facts that a number of experts drawn from various reputed institutions of India, used their collective wisdom in scrutinising the scientific data from various perspectives before approving any product as safe, Manjunath, a former Director of Central Institute for Cotton Research, Nagpur, and a key member of the Mahyco-Monsanto team which was responsible for the introduction of bt cotton in India, said.

Despite the continued opposition by "a small section", Indian farmers, who have been haunted by bollworms for more than three decades, had accepted this technology, he claimed.

This was reflected by the fact that area under bt-cotton, which was about 29,000 hectares in 2002, the first year of approval, has steadily increased from year to year to reach about 3.8 milion hectare grown by more than 2.3 million farmers in nine states by 2006, Manjunath said.

Presently, with the approval of more than 60 bt cotton hybrids developed by various Indian seed companies and also newer and improved versions of Bt-cotton, there would be an increasing demand for these transgenic seeds, Manjunath claimed.

Making an attempt to clear a lot of doubts and enable people to develop more confidence in crop biotechnology, Manjunath in his book said that coincidental with its steep increased adoption, the average yield of cotton in India increased from 308 kg per hectare in 2001-02 to 450 kg per hectare in 2005-06 with most of the increase in yield of up to 50 per cent or more, attributed to BT cotton.

The book, which desribed as very cruel the allegation that BT cotton was responsible for farmers' suicides, said it had no empirical basis. On the contrary, Bt cotton has come as a big relief to farmers and has saved their crops and enabled them to reap a better harvest and profit, Manjunath said.

In fact, an International Market Research Bureau survery in 2004 indicated that for every rupee spent by the farmers, they received Rs.5.80 in value for reduced insecticide cost and increased yield over conventional cotton, he said.

Further, BT cotton cultivation has started in India only since 2002, whereas the farmers' suicide had been an issue since decades, Manjunath claimed.

"Healthy criticism is welcome, but blind opposition and creating suspicion and fear through unsubstantiated allegation have no place in science." With vast resources, India has the potential to emerge as a supreme power in agriculture if modern technologies were appropriately reviewed and adopted and the farmers would be the greatest beneficiaries of agricultural biotechnology, Manjunath said.