Author: Milind Murugkar
Publication:  The Economic Times
Date: September 27, 2012
URL: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/guest-writer/bt-cotton-technology-a-blessing-or-a-curse-for-farmers/articleshow/16566733.cms
 
Who doesn't like simple stories? Wouldn't it be nice if we could toss out villains and live happily ever after? Unfortunately, this happens only in fairy tales.

 Critics of Bt cotton technology used by farmers in Maharashtra blame farmers' suicides on the adoption of this technology. More sophisticated critics concede that other factors could be at play, but the guilt of Bt cotton is taken as self-evident even by them.

 When I visited these villages in early June 2012, I found that these critical stories were the news. Many farmers were puzzled and amazed to be told that their encounter with Bt cotton was ruinous to them. And they were not just big farmers.

 Pankaj Shinde is poor. He owns two acres of dry land in the small village of Antargaon. But by doubling his yield, Bt cotton had substantially raised his meagre income. "I used to harvest merely three quintals of cotton before the arrival of Bt cotton. Now, I can even reach seven quintals," he said. Shinde is so poor that he and his five-member family also work as labourers for other farmers. The increased yield of Bt cotton on other farms has also raised the demand for labour for cotton picking.

 "The benefit of Bt is obvious. I don't have irrigation. My five-acre land produced only seven quintals of cotton; a little over one-and-a-quarter quintal per acre. Now, Bt has pushed it up to five quintals per acre," said Dnyaneshwar Shrawan Fendar from Bhamraja, another village near Antargaon. These are yield figures of dry land cotton. With irrigation, the yield can be much higher. Farmers also reported that now they do not have to use pesticides for killing bollworms. The positive effect of Bt is palpable in these villages.

 Critical questions have been raised about the media-reported earnings from Bt cotton of an educated farmer called Nandu Raut. In his interaction with me, Raut did not wish to endorse either story although he made it clear that Bt cotton worked for him. From other village accounts, it also seemed that there was an active effort to paint a dismal picture so that a case could be made for special government schemes. Farmers who spoke out about the benefits of Bt cotton risked censure from local 'opinion leaders' on this account.