Telangana cotton farmers to say no to illegal BT cotton seeds

Telangana cotton farmers to say no to illegal BT cotton seeds. The Telangana government and farmers’ union have launched their own campaigns to spead awareness about illegal bio-tech cotton seeds that that flood around 45 lakh acres of cotton area in Telangana alone.

Though these seeds and technology don’t have any authorisation to use in India, farmers have been using it extensively, reports BusinessLine. BT giants like Monsanto and other private bio-tech companies has been denying any role in the proliferation of illegal seeds.

The Telangana state government has already begun a campaign across the State to spread awareness and warns farmers of Preventive Detention and arrest in case of possession of these seeds.

The farmers’ unions too are advising the farmers to be careful about the ill-effects of the herbicide-tolerant seeds. “To discourage farmers from using the RRF and Bollgard-II, which have become highly ineffective against pink bollworm, we need to promote non-Bt varieties such as Narasimha, Rythu Rakshana, Suraj and Nandhyala 5494 seeds,” T Sagar, Secretary of the Telangana Rythu Sangham, quoted as saying in the BusinessLine report.

Telangana and Andhra Pradesh would jointly constitute about a sixth of the three crore acres of the projected cotton area in the next kharif season, with Telangana alone is expected to plant cotton on about 40 lakh acres.

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