By Jaideep Sarin, IANS
Chandigarh : The magic of Bt cotton in southern Punjab has vanished. Weary and stressed farmers – who are said to have sprayed pesticides worth over Rs.5 billion (over $120 million) this season to save their cotton crop from the mealy bug – are headed for major losses this time around.
Just a few months ago, in the February assembly elections in Punjab, the victory of the Congress in assembly seats from the once Akali Dal stronghold of Malwa – the cotton growing belt of south Punjab – was credited to the two years of success of the genetically modified Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) cotton crop with its bumper yields and returns.
But in the first cotton season after the Akalis took over in Punjab, the mealy bug – a kind of insect – has wreaked devastation in Malwa’s fields.
“Nobody knows clearly about this insect that is destroying our crops. After two bumper seasons, we are heading straight for a major loss. The farmers are in a crisis,” stated Bachan Singh showing his ‘mealy bug’-infested cotton crop in his fields near Sardulgarh, 250 km from here.
Farmers refer to the mealy bug as “chitti bhoondi” (white insect) in local parlance.
Hundreds of farmers in this belt of Punjab and even in neighbouring Pakistan could have never imagined that Bt cotton could be hit by a virus. The white-colour bug, considered deadlier than the American bollworm, is now threatening the cotton crop in Punjab and elsewhere. At least 25 percent of the crop is already destroyed.
The concern is genuine. Based on the success of Bt cotton in the last two years, the area under cotton cultivation increased from 570,000 hectares to 648,000 hectares.
Companies that helped farmers introduce Bt cotton are themselves at a loss over the turn of events.
Global crop protection chemicals major, Dupont, has admitted that there is currently “no perfect solution” to deal with the new bugs attacking Bt cotton crops across the country.
“The introduction of Bt cotton was a technological advancement and has benefited Indian farmers in a big way. The shift from conventional cotton varieties has saved farmers an estimated Rs.4 billion on pesticide sprays. But it is true that new technologies give rise to a new set of problems, including pest shifts,” Dupont’s South Asia business manager Ram Mudholkar said here.
Mudholkar said though there were insecticides, including Dupont’s own Methomyl, that could be used to tackle the problem, farmers needed to be adequately educated on how to apply these products.
“There is currently no very good solution to the mealy bug affecting Bt cotton crops in Punjab and elsewhere,” he said.
Environmental NGO Kheti Virasat Mission, which advocates natural farming, environmental health and conservation of natural resources, is already concerned over pesticides worth Rs.5 billion being sprayed in the Malwa belt.
“There are already abundant stories of cancer cases being rampant due to the excessive use of pesticides. Spraying more pesticides to control the mealy bug will make matters worse,” one activist said.
The NGO’s executive director Umendra Dutt has expressed concern about the fate of Bt cotton in a recent article.
“A major portion of the profit which the farmer hoped to reap from his cotton crop has already gone into pockets of pesticide companies, making the farmer once again the ultimate loser,” he wrote.
“First, he purchased expensive Bollgard Bt seeds, believing in their resistance towards pests, and after the mealy bug made a meal of the Bt cotton, the farmer made a huge investment in pesticides.
“The seed companies had already cornered the lion’s share of the cotton crop by selling the farmers expensive seed and now it is the turn of pesticide companies to squeeze the farmers. Our farmer is surrounded by merchants of Venice; there are Shylocks all around him,” Dutt wrote.
Dutt added that mobile vans carrying big banners of pesticide companies were criss-crossing villages to educate farmers about the mealy bug attack. “But educating farmers is a money minting exercise for the pesticide companies,” he added.
Agriculture officials in Bathinda say that pesticides sprayed in recent weeks have not rid the crop of the mealy bug. The Punjab government has sent a report to the central govenrment saying the mealy bug problem was there but was “under control”.