This link has been bookmarked by 2 people . It was first bookmarked on 12 Dec 2007, by Arne Løining.
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22 Apr 12
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Recently, Monsanto hybrid maize seeds failed in more than 350,000 acres in about 11 districts of north Bihar.
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Recently, Monsanto hybrid maize seeds failed in more than 350,000 acres in about 11 districts of north Bihar.
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Recently, Monsanto hybrid maize seeds failed in more than 350,000 acres in about 11 districts of north Bihar.
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Recently, Monsanto hybrid maize seeds failed in more than 350,000 acres in about 11 districts of north Bihar.
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Recently, Monsanto hybrid maize seeds failed in more than 350,000 acres in about 11 districts of north Bihar.
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Recently, Monsanto hybrid maize seeds failed in more than 350,000 acres in about 11 districts of north Bihar.
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Recently, Monsanto hybrid maize seeds failed in more than 350,000 acres in about 11 districts of north Bihar.
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Recently, Monsanto hybrid maize seeds failed in more than 350,000 acres in about 11 districts of north Bihar.
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Recently, Monsanto hybrid maize seeds failed in more than 350,000 acres in about 11 districts of north Bihar.
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Recently, Monsanto hybrid maize seeds failed in more than 350,000 acres in about 11 districts of north Bihar.
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Recently, Monsanto hybrid maize seeds failed in more than 350,000 acres in about 11 districts of north Bihar.
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independent studies by a citizen group found that the Punjab farmers have rejected the first ever genetically modified commercial cotton hybrid seed, Bt cotton, due to its poor harvest
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Bt cotton had found many takers among farmers in Punjab when it was introduced. Though the Punjab Agriculture University was against the sowing of Bt cotton seeds, several farmers smuggled Bt cotton seeds from Gujarat hoping for better results. The yield was, however, lower than claimed. The Daula village sarpanch Mr. Darshan Singh said, “ ... We had to spray chemicals 4–5 times on Bt cotton. The crops were attacked by various pests, specially the American Bollworm. The Bt cotton yield was lower than that of the local varieties, which are more profitable
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RFSTE conducted a study in the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka which showed that not only did Monsanto’s cotton not protect the plants from the American Bollworm, but there was an increase of 250–300% in attacks by non target pests like Jassids, aphids, white fly and thrips. In addition, the Bt plants became prey to fungal diseases like root rot disease or fusarium. The Bt cotton varieties gave very low yields. Even the staple lengths of what little cotton was produced were so short that the cotton fetched a very low price in the cotton market.
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In Madhya Pradesh, in Badwani, Khargaon, Dhar and Khandwa districts, almost half the 42 farmers visited reported that their crop had failed. Khargaon farmers faced total crop failure. In the other districts, only one expected a yield of 12.5 quintals. The average yield expected by the others was 4.01 quintals, as compared to the 15 quintals promised by Monsanto Mahyco.
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The failure or drastically reduced yield of Bt cotton has devastated Bt cotton farmers, who are faced with penury.
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The only paper that bolsters Monsanto’s claim to Bollgard (their Bt cotton seed product) is a study by Matin Qaim (University of Bonn’s Center for Development Research) and David Zilberman (Professor at the University of California in Berkeley), published in the journal Science, which said that the Indian experience with Bt is positive and yields have increased by 80%. Qaim and Zilberman have used data provided by Monsanto-Mahyco, which is still not in the public domain, to substantiate their claims.
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The data presented in this sensational paper are, however, not based on this harvest as one would expect but on a few selected trial plots belonging to the company. No data from farmers’ fields or from the All India Coordinated Variety trials conducted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) have been included.
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This amounts to manipulating data since trial plots are experimental fields with optimal conditions. The performance in real fields under normal cultivation conditions is very different. Nowhere near these kinds of results are seen anywhere else in the world where Bt cotton is being cultivated.
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Bt cotton is not effective in controlling many secondary pests, especially sucking pests. Field experiments showed that the populations of secondary pests such as cotton aphids, cotton spider mites, thrips, lygus bugs, cotton whitefly, cotton leaf hopper and beet armyworm increased in Bt cotton fields after the target pest, bollworm, had been controlled. Some pests replaced bollworm as primary pests and damaged cotton growth.
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Both laboratory tests and field monitoring have verified that cotton bollworm can develop resistance to Bt cotton. Laboratory tests for selection of Bt resistant bollworm indicated that susceptibility of bollworm to Bt cotton fell to 30% after 17 generations under continuous selection with a diet of Bt cotton leaves. The resistance index of the bollworm increased 1000 times when the selection was continued to the 40th generation.
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12 Dec 07
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