2 Comments

  1. jon biscit says:

    Monsanto-Mahyco’s primary promise was that Bt cotton would reduce the
    amount of chemicals needed to control pests. Over the past 10 years,
    however, government data show that pesticide
    usage has stayed the
    same or increased across the cotton belt. This is due to two factors:
    Insects have developed resistance to Bt cotton: The cotton bollworm,
    Bt’s target pest, developed resistance to the Cry toxin produced by Bt
    cotton, pushing farmers to use more pesticides to control the pest. To
    combat
    this problem, in 2006, Monsanto released a second generation of Bt
    cotton called Bollgard-II, which has two Bt genes instead of the
    original single gene in Bollgard-I. Secondary pests are becoming a
    problem: Because of the initial reduction in bollworm populations in Bt
    cotton fields, pests that did not previously pose a significant threat
    to cotton crops, such as mealy bug, aphids and thrips, have become more
    prevalent.[xiii] Farmers are now using highly toxic pesticides to manage
    these new pest problems.

    Increased Costs
    Bt seed, which
    farmers have to buy from seed companies every year, is anywhere from 3
    to 8 times more expensive than conventional hybrid seed, and several
    times more costly than the local seed farmers could buy in the market
    two decades ago. The seeds can cost anywhere between 700
    ($13) to
    2,000 rupees ($38) per packet. Cotton farmers in India are also spending
    significantly more on pesticides and other farm inputs. In 2002,
    farmers spent Rs 5.97-billionon pesticides and in 2010 this number rose
    to Rs 8.80-billion as farmers tried to combat pest resistance and the
    emergence of secondary pests. Bt cotton also requires higher levels of
    irrigation and fertilizer to yield well, further
    pushing up farmers’ costs.

  2. This is so true about these GMOs crops produced lower yield than any natural organic crops, because I seen them in comparison between the natural & Gmos, the natural corns look very large and robust cornstalk, and GMO cornstalk look very lame looking.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *