BT cotton by Monsanto fails once again

[hinduwoman]

http://www.rediff.com/business/repo...be-a-disaster-for-indian-farmers/20151106.htm

Indian farmers are for the first time abandoning genetically modified cotton after a devastating pest attack ravaged their fields, sowing doubts about the crop technology that had been hailed as a panacea.

The whitefly attack on the Bt cotton variety in Punjab and Haryana has caused a rural crisis: at least three farmers have committed suicide around the city of Bhatinda and tens of thousands protested to demand state aid.
These are some of the same farmers who more than a decade ago reaped the first bumper harvest of GM cotton that quickly caught on because it dramatically increased yields and raised living standards.
...
We poured all our money into buying pesticides and worked day and night to save the crop. But it failed miserably," said Thana Singh, 67, whose son died after taking poison during a protest outside a government office in Punjab.
Singh and many other farmers plan to switch to food crops such as lentils to rebuild their livelihoods.
...

Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (India) Pvt Ltd (MMB), a joint venture with India's Mahyco, said that Monsanto and the licensees have marketed their product as resistant to bollworms, but not against other pests.
"This technology is effective only against specific types of bollworms that are known to cause boll damage leading to yield loss and economic damage to the cotton crop and not other sucking pests," a spokesman said in comments emailed to Reuters.
...

Experts say that dry conditions in northern India and Pakistan have helped the pest spread.
"Bt cotton seeds are as effective against bollworms as they were in 2002 and the widespread whitefly attack was primarily due to a prolonged dry spell," said Bhagirath Choudhary, director of the South Asia Biotech Centre, a not-for-profit scientific society.

If GM is good for only one type of pests then then no use marketing it as panacea.

In another report it was observed that farmers who did not use BT seeds or pesticides has flourished because apparently it has allowed a kind of spider to grow on cotton plants which eats whiteflies.

However there are already efforts underway to say that it is the farmers' fault because they do not know how to spray pesticide properly.

When there was fuss first about GM crops Monsanto insisted that their seed is superior because no change in farming tactics needed and no pesticides needed anymore, for anything.

 

[Jingi walla]

What did,Monsanto claim?

 

[Axulus]

http://www.rediff.com/business/repo...be-a-disaster-for-indian-farmers/20151106.htm

Indian farmers are for the first time abandoning genetically modified cotton after a devastating pest attack ravaged their fields, sowing doubts about the crop technology that had been hailed as a panacea.

The whitefly attack on the Bt cotton variety in Punjab and Haryana has caused a rural crisis: at least three farmers have committed suicide around the city of Bhatinda and tens of thousands protested to demand state aid.
These are some of the same farmers who more than a decade ago reaped the first bumper harvest of GM cotton that quickly caught on because it dramatically increased yields and raised living standards.
...
We poured all our money into buying pesticides and worked day and night to save the crop. But it failed miserably," said Thana Singh, 67, whose son died after taking poison during a protest outside a government office in Punjab.
Singh and many other farmers plan to switch to food crops such as lentils to rebuild their livelihoods.
...

Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (India) Pvt Ltd (MMB), a joint venture with India's Mahyco, said that Monsanto and the licensees have marketed their product as resistant to bollworms, but not against other pests.
"This technology is effective only against specific types of bollworms that are known to cause boll damage leading to yield loss and economic damage to the cotton crop and not other sucking pests," a spokesman said in comments emailed to Reuters.
...

Experts say that dry conditions in northern India and Pakistan have helped the pest spread.
"Bt cotton seeds are as effective against bollworms as they were in 2002 and the widespread whitefly attack was primarily due to a prolonged dry spell," said Bhagirath Choudhary, director of the South Asia Biotech Centre, a not-for-profit scientific society.

If GM is good for only one type of pests then then no use marketing it as panacea.

In another report it was observed that farmers who did not use BT seeds or pesticides has flourished because apparently it has allowed a kind of spider to grow on cotton plants which eats whiteflies.

However there are already efforts underway to say that it is the farmers' fault because they do not know how to spray pesticide properly.

When there was fuss first about GM crops Monsanto insisted that their seed is superior because no change in farming tactics needed and no pesticides needed anymore, for anything.

Can you give one or two specific examples of marketing it as "panacea"?

Can you provide evidence on why or how bt cotton would discourage the type of spider that eats whitefiles that you claim? Can you provide evidence that such non-bt crops had a better survival rate vs bt crops?

 

[Loren Pechtel]

This isn't a problem with genetic modification, but rather a problem with monoculture.

 

[Juma]

What shit country makes suicide the only option?

 

[Will Wiley]

What shit country makes suicide the only option?

Do a lot of Swedish people have that attitude?

 

[Juma]

What shit country makes suicide the only option?

Do a lot of Swedish people have that attitude?

I believe so yes: economical problems should never result in suicide.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Do a lot of Swedish people have that attitude?

I believe so yes: economical problems should never result in suicide.

Doesn't Sweden have a lot of economic safety nets?

 

[Juma]

I believe so yes: economical problems should never result in suicide.

Doesn't Sweden have a lot of economic safety nets?

Yes?

 

[ApostateAbe]

Would you blame a flu vaccine for failing to protect against HIV?

Bt cotton seeds not responsible for whitefly attack: ABLE-AG

 

[Will Wiley]

It seems there has been a deliberate push to get small farmer off the land in India so that the corporates could move in.

Globalization: Global Agribusiness Hammering Away At The Foundations Of Indian Society

According to the World Bank in the nineties, it was expected (and hoped) that some 400 million people in Indian agriculture would be moving out of the sector by 2015. To help them on their way, farming had to be made financially non-viable and policies formulated to facilitate the process.

Food and trade policy analyst Devinder Sharma describes the situation:

“India is on fast track to bring agriculture under corporate control... Amending the existing laws on land acquisition, water resources, seed, fertilizer, pesticides and food processing, the government is in overdrive to usher in contract farming and encourage organized retail. This is exactly as per the advice of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund as well as the international financial institutes.”

He notes that in its 2008 World Development Report, the World Bank wanted India to hasten the process by accelerating land acquisitions and launching a network of training institutes to train younger people in rural areas so as to make them eligible for industrial work. This is now happening, especially the highly contentious push to facilitate private corporations' access to land, which has been sparking mass protests across the country.

Farmers in India have been betrayed.


Why our farmers urgently need help

The intention is very clear. With the Centre conveying to the Supreme Court its inability in providing farmers with 50 per cent profit over the cost of cultivation, farmers are being left in the lurch. They are expected to fend for themselves, and face the vagaries of the markets once the government begins to withdraw the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat and paddy. Economic Survey 2015 has made this amply clear.

Farmers have reasons to feel betrayed. After a high-pitch election campaign a year earlier when the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi time and again promised to enhance the Minimum Support Price (MSP) by 50 per cent if his party came into power, the government has simply backtracked on its promise. But soon after coming into power, the government raised the MSP for paddy and wheat by a paltry Rs50 per quintal, which translates into an increase of 3.6 per cent, not enough to offset the additional burden of inflation at that time.

Read more here
Unmasking the GMO ‘Humanitarian’ Narrative

 

[Will Wiley]

Would you blame a flu vaccine for failing to protect against HIV?

Bt cotton seeds not responsible for whitefly attack: ABLE-AG

Ok..so BT cotton is a failure in India.
I'd like to see how it was marketed in India.

http://www.greenpeace.org/india/Global/india/report/2005/9/marketing-of-bt-cotton-in-indi.pdf
A Greenpeace link has the following to say

In Punjab….
The Chief Minister of Punjab, Capt. Amarinder Singh saved the companies
some expenditure on advertising by using public funds to put out large,
prominent advertisements on Bt Cotton for several days in several papers.
These advertisements promise several benefits to farmers with the
purchase and use of Bt Cotton.
It is not clear however who is to be held accountable when Bt Cotton fails,
as it is appearing to in many parts of the state

.

In Andhra Pradesh….
The company launched its product in 2002 by giving a big daawat to farmers in many villages.
Chinnapu Reddy of Fatimapur village in Kothur mandal in Mahbubnagar had this story to narrate:
“The company guys and the dealers came right up to our doorstep to deliver the seeds. We
should have known right then that something was wrong. One day, I came back to the village
from the town to find a large
gathering and much activity.
There were also reporters from
the local papers present. When I
went closer, I discovered that this
was about Bollgard seed. In this
‘function’, the discussions on the
seed were held for one and half
hours and more time was spent
on a big feast. There was 95 kilos
of non-vegetarian food cooked
that day and there was biryani
and chicken fry. On that very day,
‘bookings’ for the season’s seed
supply were made by the dealers and the company representatives. When parties like that are
thrown, farmers like me tend to think that there must be something to what they are saying and
agreed to buy the seed. The seeds have now brought farmers nearer to the gates of suicide
deaths again”.

In states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, MonsantoMahyco
Biotech is also known to have distributed free pesticides with
Bt Cotton seed! Advertisements of this “Scheme” had a title
screaming: "In addition to two kinds of benefits, two kinds of savings
also!". The advertisement promises the following: "Now, in addition to
the heavy savings you are making on the sprays that you would use
for bollworm prevention, you can also save on expenses on pesticides
used for sucking pests. The advantage of the booking: Please pay only
Rs 200/- for booking two boxes of Bollgard

Yet according to your link.

"Bt technology in cotton provides resistance against specific types of insects namely Bollworms while whitefly is a different category of insects called sucking pests.

"The recent outbreak of whitefly attack has no relation with Bt technology in cotton," ABLE-AG Executive Director Shivendra Bajaj said.

 

[ApostateAbe]

Would you blame a flu vaccine for failing to protect against HIV?

Bt cotton seeds not responsible for whitefly attack: ABLE-AG

Ok..so BT cotton is a failure in India.
I'd like to see how it was marketed in India

Nobody with the tiniest toe-hold in reality would either say or believe that any given genetically engineered variety will end every biological problem. I will repeat the question: would you blame a flu vaccine for failing to protect against HIV?

 

[Will Wiley]

Ok..so BT cotton is a failure in India.
I'd like to see how it was marketed in India

Nobody with the tiniest toe-hold in reality would either say or believe that any given genetically engineered variety will end every biological problem. I will repeat the question: would you blame a flu vaccine for failing to protect against HIV?

If Monsanto claimed flu vaccine protected against HIV then Monsanto would have a case to answer. And if Monsanto claimed BT cotton protected against sucking pests then Monsanto would have a case to answer.
Does you self implied tiny toehold in reality get that?

 

[ApostateAbe]

Both HIV and the flu are viruses, and pharmaceutical companies claim that the flu vaccine protects against viruses, so Big Pharma is held responsible when people die of HIV even after getting a flu vaccine.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

[KeepTalking]

In states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, MonsantoMahyco
Biotech is also known to have distributed free pesticides with
Bt Cotton seed! Advertisements of this “Scheme” had a title
screaming: "In addition to two kinds of benefits, two kinds of savings
also!". The advertisement promises the following: "Now, in addition to
the heavy savings you are making on the sprays that you would use
for bollworm prevention, you can also save on expenses on pesticides
used for sucking pests. The advantage of the booking: Please pay only
Rs 200/- for booking two boxes of Bollgard

Yet according to your link.

"Bt technology in cotton provides resistance against specific types of insects namely Bollworms while whitefly is a different category of insects called sucking pests.

"The recent outbreak of whitefly attack has no relation with Bt technology in cotton," ABLE-AG Executive Director Shivendra Bajaj said.

First they talk about savings on Bollworm preventive pesticides, then they mention that savings can ALSO be had on pesticides for sucking pests. This tells you that the BT cotton, and the pesticides for Bollworm prevention do not prevent against sucking pests, but if you want to prevent against that, you can buy other pesticides that do that, and that apparently some savings can be had on those as well. I see nothing that says BT cotton, and Bollworm pesticides will work against sucking pests like the whitefly.