It Follows Earth Around the Sun. Stone Bt cotton is explicitly credited with tripling cotton production during Pink bollworm Photo: K. A cotton leaf crawling with aphids; these insects have run rampant since Bt cotton has spread.
Leave a Comment Comments and respectful dialogue are encouraged, but content will be moderated. You Might Also Like. WashU Experts Are supply chain disruptions here to stay? Is Bt cotton cultivation economically viable for Indian farmers? An empirical analysis. Political Wkly 41 , — Jadad, A. Randomized Controlled Trials 2nd edn Blackwell, Krishna, V. Bt cotton and sustainability of pesticide reductions in India. Gruere, G. Reconstructing facts in Bt cotton: why scepticism fails.
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James, C. Srivastava, S. However, the decline in yield is only about 15 percent in the last six or seven years. Ramasamy also pointed out that Vidarbha in Maharashtra, the region in south-central India referred to in the Bloomberg article as suffering problems, tends to experience drought and few cotton farmers have access to irrigation.
We also reached out to Dr. As our other experts said, the problem might be the continuous cropping of cotton in certain regions. Paranjape contrasted this with irrigated cotton in the north of India, which tends be rotated with winter rice. As a result, pupae, if they survive, find a suitable host in the following season.
All is not necessarily lost, however, because the tenets of integrated pest management can still be followed. Some of these are more amenable to amelioration than others. We observed that farmers preferred Bt cotton for its higher productivity compared to non-Bt varieties, and many of them were not happy about the decline in its productivity.
They did not know the genetic background of these hybrids and its perceived impact on ecology and changes in pest and disease profile. Largely, they saw Bt cotton as one of the varieties giving good yield.
They said that due to this cultivation of Bt cotton many have gained the opportunity and resources to build their assets and the concrete pucca houses.
During the discussions in Wardha, men referred to a few cases of buffalo deaths on consuming Bt cotton foliage, however it did not show any negative health effects on goats. Also they gave cotton seeds to cows to get milk with high fat content, but there was no case of death or disease in the cows. This was the perception of some farmers, which they frankly shared with the researchers in the field, with an explicit request to include in the report. Women reported about adverse health consequences of workings in the Bt cotton fields: Persistent skin rash, blacking of toe nails, irritation and itching of eyes, and prolonged chronic coughs.
Although these health effects were first stated by women yet in the subsequent discussions, men too agreed with these health effects. Based on our focused group discussions with women and men in the villages of Yavatmal and Wardha, we noted the following points:.
The different perspectives of women and men on health effects brought us to the question of gender roles and relations in the cultivation and management of Bt cotton in India. Throughout in our discussions in the field sites in Maharashtra and Rajasthan, women reported that they wake up at 5 am and sleep by 10 pm. After getting children ready for school, and then making lunch and packing it for men and themselves, they would leave for farm work around 9 am and work in the fields throughout the day.
Both women and men work in the cotton fields, but women additionally do all household work and most of agricultural work, such as sowing, weeding and harvesting of cotton bolls. We raised questions about the role of women and men in cultivation and management of Bt cotton and who preserved and used cotton and other seeds. We conducted our interviews in an informal setting, facilitating talk, and not in any sequential order. Both women and men repeatedly affirmed that it is the men who have the major decision making power, and the existing norms did not allow women to make decisions on what to grow and how much to sell.
In a few cases, men participated in cooking by cutting vegetables. They also shared with women information about sale of cotton in the local market, showing them the sales voucher when they returned from the market. In households where the men migrated out, it was said to be a common practice for them to return at the time of land preparation, ploughing and harvesting of the crop, as well as for transporting cotton to the market.
A few women also did some marketing, but not of cotton; it was limited to purchasing minor items such as grocery for household use. In a village in Yavatmal, we began with the question: In one acre of Bt cotton field, what kind of work women would do? And what kind of work men would do?
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