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GM technology and
sustainable agriculture future: Empirical evidences from Bt
cotton farmers in Maharashtra and Gujarat in India
P. K. Viswanathan* and N. Lalitha
Gujarat
Institute of Development Research, Ahmedabad, India.
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
pkviswam@gmail.com.
Accepted
15 September, 2009 |
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World agriculture is passing through a distinct phase of
transformation, called the ‘second Green Revolution’ or Gene
Revolution,
in which modern biotechnology enables the production of
genetically modified (GM) crops/ foods that are claimed to
help resolve the pressing problems of food security,
malnutrition and abject poverty in different parts of the
world.
However, there are apprehensions the world over that the GM
technology as it unveils may have harmful consequences on
sustainable livelihoods in view of the potential threats to
food security and subsequent environmental and health
challenges. Set in this broader context of GM tech induced
agrarian transformation, this paper tries examining some of
the potential challenges emerging from the unscrupulous
expansion of GM crops in India with reference to Bt cotton.
In doing so, the paper draws useful insights from the
empirical evidences of the dynamics of Bt cotton adoption in
the dominant cotton rowing states of Maharashtra and Gujarat
in India. The analysis is based on farm household data
gathered from five leading cotton growing districts in the
two states. The paper observes that there is no clear way
forward to sustain the initial dynamism cast by the
introduction of Bt technology in India. A bright future for
Indian agriculture with the presence of GM technology in
general and Bt technology in particular, would essentially
call for many reforms, development strategies and
institutional and policy interventions covering a wide
spectrum of activities ranging from restructuring the input
markets to the output markets. India need also to learn from
the experiences of other countries with respect to the
performance of GM technology and evolve carefully devised
strategies and action plans, which presuppose creation of
new institutional or regulatory regimes or reinventing the
existing ones so as to make a sustainable impact of the
technology on the livelihoods of millions of cotton farmers
as well as the century old cotton production sector in India
Key
words: GM technology, Bt cotton, sustainable
agriculture, yield. |
