BKU members will provide seeds of banned HT cotton to the farmers in Sarangpur village of Hisar district on Fr... Read More

HISAR: A farmers’ union has decided to promote a variant of genetically-modified (GM) cotton, which is banned in the country, on the lines of a protest movement launched by farmers in Maharashtra .

The Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) said farmers in Sarangpur village of Haryana ’s Hisar district will plant banned HT (herbicide tolerant) genetically-modified cotton in their fields on Friday. The union also plans to plant banned variant of GM cotton in Punjab’s Mansa district and Himachal Pradesh.

India’s biotech regulator, Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), only allows commercial production of Bt Cotton — a non-food genetically-modified crop. It has banned use of any other genetically-modified crop or its variant. Sale of HT cotton seeds is also banned in India.

Earlier this year, illegal cultivation of genetically-modified brinjal, Bt Brinjal, was detected in Haryana’s Fatehabad district with help of genetic tests and the farmer’s crop was destroyed.

Surprisingly, the state’s agriculture department did not even know that HT-Cotton is banned in India. Deputy director, agriculture, Vinod Phogat said Bt cotton is grown in 90% of cotton-growing area of the state. He said he does not know what HT cotton is and whether it is banned or not. He added that he has no information about the BKU plans for Friday.

Farmers from Maharashtra, involved with BKU, have reached Sarangpur village. A meeting at Sarangpur on this issue was addressed by Haryana BKU president Thakur Guniprakesh, vice-president Chiranji Lal Bishnoi, Maharashtra farmer leaders Lalit Bahhane, Vijay Nival and Rajendra on Thursday.

The Centre has banned HT cotton and Bt brinjal even though 70% of brinjal grown in Haryana is Bt brinjal and HT cotton has been sown in 10% area of Haryana. The administration only destroys GM crops on fining about it, there is no other regulation in place, claimed Guniprakesh.

After Fatehabad, the Sirsa administration destroyed five-acre Bt brinjal crop in Rangri village of the district. When the union opposed the destruction, he claimed the administration tried to suppress the case by paying compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the farmer.

“We do not want compensation. Our demand is that the government must provide farmers new technology so that they can become self-reliant. The government talks about natural farming, but it does not give the farmers a reasonable price for their crop. If natural farming benefits farmers, then farmers will cultivate it,” he said.

The union will provide seeds of banned HT cotton to the farmers in Sarangpur village on Friday. “The government says HT cotton and Bt brinjal is harmful, but we are ready for all types of testing because we believe they cause no harm.”

Asked where they had procured banned HT cotton seeds from, Guniprakesh said when smack can be smuggled in from Pakistan, why seeds cannot come for farmers?

Monsanto had filed an application with the GEAC to introduce HT Bt cotton in India but it withdrew the application in 2016, objecting to a government proposal that would force it to share its technology with Indian seed companies.

