At the end of 2011 India will have witnessed a decade of Bt cotton growing, resultantly which has enhanced the farm income up to $10 billion in the decade.
Overall, the increase from 50,000 hectares of Bt cotton in 2002, (when Bt cotton was first commercialized) to 9.4 million hectares in 2010 represents an unprecedented 188-fold increase in nine years. The annual global study of benefits generated by biotech crops, conducted by Brookes and Barfoot, estimated that India enhanced farm income from Bt cotton by US$7.0 billion in the period 2002 to 2009 and US$1.9 billion in 2009 alone.
The increase in total hectares of cotton planted in India is, to a large extent, a reflection of the growing acceptance of Bt cotton hybrids by cotton farmers throughout the country. Notably, India has achieved unparalleled progress in Cotton on three fronts in 2010; the highest ever area of cotton, 11 million hectares under cultivation; the largest ever cotton production equivalent to 32.5 million bales; a sustained high cotton yield of more than 500 kg per hectare despite significant increases in cotton hectarage. This was disclosed in the Brief 42 of Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops 2010 released by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Application (ISAAA) this year. The report further says that in 2010 the adoption of Bt cotton in India soared to a record 9.4 million hectares, equivalent to 86 per cent of the record 11 million hectare cotton crop planted in the country.
The 1 million hectare gain in Bt cotton in 2010 resulted from an increase of 8.4 million hectares in 2009 to 9.4 million hectares in 2010 farmed by 6.3 million farmers growing on average 1 .5 hectares of cotton; the 8.4 million hectares of Bt cotton in 2009 occupied 81 per cent of the 10.3 million hectare of cotton farmed by 5.6 million farmers.
Thus, in 2010, an additional 0.7 million farmers preferred to grow Bt cotton, rather than conventional cotton — a significant increase from the 5.6 million cotton farmers in 2009.
Typically, yield gains are approximately 31 per cent. A 39 per cent reduction in the number of insecticide sprays lead to an 88 per cent increase in profitability, equivalent to a substantial increase of approximately $250 per hectare. Thus, Bt cotton has transformed cotton production in India by increasing yield, bits contributed to the alleviation of poverty for over 6 million small farmers in 2010 alone; the potential of biotech cotton in India for the future is enormous.
A total of 780 Bt cotton introductions (779 hybrids and one variety) were approved for planting in 2010 compared with 522 Bt cotton hybrids in 2009. The Brief states that in order to meet the growing demand of the burgeoning population of India, Bt cotton, has been successfully used as a multiple purpose crop in three ways: in the form of edible oil as food for human consumption; de-oiled cake as an animal feed; and kapas for fiber. The production of cotton seed, and its by-products as oil and meal, has increased manifold from 0.46 million tonnes in 2002-03 to 1.20 million tonnes in 201 0-11. As a result, Bt cotton meal (de-oiled cake) contributes one third of the country’s total demand for animal feed, whereas cotton oil contributes 13.7 per cent of total edible oil production for human consumption in the country — a significant contribution which offsets more than half of the import bill for edible oil valued at $6.5 billion annually. Increased production of Bt cotton oil could be one of the important strategies to substitute for edible oil imports which constitute more than 50 per cent of the total edible oil consumption in the country. In 2009-10 India, for the first time ever, imported more edible oil, 8.80 million tonnes than the 7.88 million tonnes it produced domestically.
Due to the high nutritional content of cotton oil, Bt cotton oil is marketed after blending it with different edible oils. One of the major factors, according to the report, is that India is becoming increasingly dependent on expensive imports of vegetable oil, which is a valid strategic concern, and biotech Bt cotton and its second generation of stacked products, as a multipurpose crop for oil, fiber and feed, can play a critical role in Indian agriculture in the near and long term future. There are also important opportunities with biotech soybean, mustard and pulses which would be appropriate to explore in 2011 which marks the 10th anniversary of the successful adoption of biotech cotton in India. It is noteworthy that the by-products of Bt cotton, have been safely consumed as food and feed in India for nine years, without incident, the Brief added.