BTS in INDIA

followed up some more on BT seeds usage in different countries. One country where these seeds and their modifications have been carefully and systematically used seems to be Australia. It seems that these seeds have to e carefully used and monitored with a system of refuges. And the seeds have been modified every few years. Long term uses and effects on health of people and soil are still being studied. With these provisos, it seems to be a success in Australia. Of course, there are other problems like the price of seeds in different countries, cost of production, gloalization effects due to subsidies etc. So, my current impression is that it is a tricky technology which on the whole yields higher profits, but has to be continuosly monitored by reliable agencies (Monsanto was fined in Indonesia for bribing).

i had struggled, the way you are now, trying to find the implications of bt technology/gm seeds etc., i found that it’s too early to conclude about their efficacy etc,., but you seem to be ignoring one vital issue here that i had pointed out on the other india tooo.. that bt cotton seems like the only alternative available to indian farmers right now..
let me put it differently - if there was no bt cotton the rate of suicides wouldn’t decrease at all, but might actually increase because there’d have been increased crop failures because the conventional seeds and pest control methods are failing increasingly. farmers see it as an effective answer to the major pest attacking cotton -bollworm. and the yields are also higher than conventional varieties..let me also point out here that suicides of cotton farmers started in andhra pradesh a few years before bt seeds were actually introduced on a commercial basis in india.

secondly, india’s trade in agricultural trade is low, when compared with the total volume of world trade.. we can’t really talk about global trends affecting indian farmers in a significant way as yet..
in my view, globalisation is an easy scapegoat for all those disparate groups ranged against reforms in india - the communists, the rss, the socialists, the environmentalists, the staus-quoists in the congress etc., etc., to blame all ills on..