GS PAPER II: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

Context: The illegal cultivation of herbicide tolerant (HT) Bt cotton has seen a huge jump this year, with seed manufacturers claiming that the sale of illegal seed packets has more than doubled from 30 lakh last year to 75 lakh this year.

• Industry lobbies have written to the Agriculture Ministry, demanding that action be taken to stop such sales and punish offenders, noting that cultivation of the genetically modified cotton variant has serious environmental and economic consequences.
• The Centre has made the policy to ban this variant. However, it was up to the State governments to enforce the policy.

Cause of concern

• Farmers are at risk with such illegal cotton seed sale as there is no accountability of the quality of seed, it pollutes the environment, the industry is losing legitimate seed sale and the government also loses revenue in terms of tax collection.
• It threatens the entire legal cotton seed market in India.
• Regulators are only limiting their checking to licensed dealers and seed companies while this illegal activity of HT seed sales is carried mostly by unorganised and fly by night operators.

HTBt cotton variant

• Bt cotton is the only transgenic crop that has been approved by the Centre for commercial cultivation in India.
• It has been genetically modified to produce an insecticide to combat the cotton bollworm, a common pest.
• The HTBt cotton variant adds another layer of modification, making the plant resistant to the herbicide glyphosate, but has not been approved by regulators.
• Fears include glyphosate having a carcinogenic effect, as well as the unchecked spread of herbicide resistance to nearby plants through pollination, creating a variety of superweeds.

Why farmers are opting for HTBt?

• There is a shortage of the labour needed to do at least two rounds of weeding for Bt cotton. With HTBt, we can simply do one round of glyphosate spraying with no need for weeding. It saves ₹7,000 to ₹8,000 per acre for farmers.
• Scientists are also in favour of this crop, and even WHO has said it does not cause cancer.

Measure taken

• Center has sent advisories to all cotton growing States, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Telangana have seized HTBt stock and taken punitive action against the culprits.
• States have also been asked to regulate the sale of glyphosate.
• Few farmers have been arrested and charged under legal provisions attracting a five-year jail term and a penalty of ₹1 lakh.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/sale-of-illegal-htbt-cotton-seeds-doubles/article34852355.ece

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