More Than One Funeral
- Monsanto’s current CEO, Hugh Grant, joined the company in 1981 and was elected prez in 2003
- In spite of increasing protests against Monsanto, Grant was hailed as ‘CEO of the Year’ in 2010
- Here, it is led by Shilpa Divekar Nirula under the name Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (India) Ltd
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Is Monsanto being shown the door in India? If so, what will happen to thousands of farmers, who over more than one decade, have adopted the genetically modified seeds of Monsanto and are cultivating it in over 95 per cent of the area? The March 9 seed pricing notice (reportedly a result of the pressure of the RSS on the government) shows that the authorities are no longer keen about the multinational which has inspired a Tumblr blog dedicated just to the hate memes about it. Unfortunately though, being loathed has rarely stopped it from successful arm-twisting—until now.
There have been protests about the high royalty collected by Monsanto as ‘trait value’ (a fee for technology traits). But what has farmers really worried is the increasing cost of production. Monsanto’s Bt cotton has become susceptible to the pink bollworm despite a double stack of the resistant gene. But it’s not all about the farmers. Accusing the US MNC of abusing its market dominance, Ashwani Mahajan of Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, an affiliate of RSS, denied there was anything sudden about their opposition to Monsanto’s policies. “It goes back more than 6 to 7 years, first because they have been selling the seeds to Indian farmers at a much steeper price than what they charge in China. Moreover, as the company itself has admitted, their Bt seeds are no longer providing safeguard against the pink bollworm,” says Mahajan. In truth, the RSS has been grudging about Monsanto’s presence since it started selling Bt cotton in India in 2002.
The infestation in the case of bollworm has risen to such an extent that even after processing, they have been found in the bales, points out Kishore Tiwari, a farm activist from Vidarbha, the drought-prone region of Maharashtra which has been witnessing the highest farmer suicides. The manifestation and widespread damage to cotton crops last year due to attack by whitefly has further compounded the situation. Farmers allege that Bt cotton in particular is susceptible to the whitefly.
Experts warn that it is just a matter of 3-4 years before even the American bollworm becomes resistant to the Bt gene. “Why should the debate be on Monsanto going away? We should instead debate what the farmers want—which is short duration cotton varieties with technical inputs to provide protection against pests,” says Jaipal Reddy, who grows Bt cotton on most of his land in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh.
While acknowledging the role played by Monsanto’s technology in achieving higher cotton yields till few years back, Reddy is critical of the high seed costs. He also wonders why Monsanto chose to use hybrid cottons in India to develop its Bt seeds instead of indigenous cotton varieties like Narasimha, which is sturdier, has good yield, shorter growth cycle and is thus less susceptible to pest attacks.
Given the stagnant growth of Bt cotton in the last few years and the resistance developed by pink bollworm to the Bt gene, Reddy is banking on the Nagpur-based Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR) to come up with more robust technology. Dr K.R. Kranthi of CICR is among a growing number of scientists who have been questioning why India let itself be caught in the hybrid trap, which has stopped it from taking full advantage of the Bt cotton technology (see the interview). The general perception is that hybrids give higher yields. With 95 per cent of India’s cotton area under Bt hybrids, its yields should be the highest. Yet the truth is that India’s seed-cotton yields are way below the global average of 2,700 kg/hectare, despite these countries mostly cultivating straight varieties. In fact, Pakistan and China have rejected the idea of Bt-cotton hybrids entirely.
Farm activists in India have been accusing Monsanto of abusing its dominant position by charging unfair prices. What started off as a movement to support farmers with states like Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra taking legal recourse to the curtail the price of GM seeds, has seen many private-sector seed companies coming together as a consortium to challenge Monsanto’s monopolistic practices. Privately, many of the seed companies admit that Monsanto is way ahead in its technology investment and expertise. But as far as India is concerned, Monsanto’s exit will give a boost to public sector research, provided more attention is paid to taking outcome to farmers.
