Unreliable Bt cotton seeds, perennially low cotton prices, a political regime that does not seem to care and of late the pink bollworm pest. A cotton farmer dejectedly says “Before the pink bollworm fiasco, we used to produce 800 kg per bigha (2.5 bigha is equal to 1 acre), now we produce only 500-600 kg. Now I am experimenting with chickpeas.” Other farmers are experimenting with onion. A team of cotton researchers admit that the pink bollworm is now resistant to genetically engineered Bt cotton. It is partly because farmers do not follow the advisories, they add. “We prescribe a number of measures to tackle the pink bollworm. But farmers in Saurashtra have become too casual,” says Dr Dhaduk of the Cotton Research Station housed inside the state-run Junagadh Agriculture University. “We prescribe measures to tackle pink bollworm. But farmers in Saurashtra have become casual. Research by government and private companies is on to discover BT with new genes. Maybe, that will tackle this pest,” the good doctor added.
Most farmers in Saurashtra, like in other cotton growing states, fear the pink pest may eventually slash cotton production in India. With 351 lakh bales per year (1 bale is equal to 170 kg). 2016-17 data of the Rajkot-headquartered Saurashtra Ginners Association reports that India is at the world’s leading cotton producing nations; Gujarat, with 95-100 lakh bales, is the leading state in India. Saurashtra accounts for nearly 70 per cent of Gujarat’s total production, besides housing 625 ginning mills handling 65 lakh bales of cotton.
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) met last month to find a solution to the pink menace. The issue resurfaced when Germany’s Bayer recently bought Monsanto. Radha Mohan Singh, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare admitted, during the past 2-3 years, resistance of BT cotton to fight pink bollworm has broken down. And farmers have been advised to follow certain steps. Reports say spurious seeds and pesticides are affecting farmers as well as the price of cotton has remained very low for the last two years. Not many farmers can afford to stock cotton and wait for a higher price. Brokers, traders and those who have the capacity to do so are making money in Saurashtra. The cotton bonanza in this district in the last 15 years has seen many exporters began growing to millionaires — that was till the little wiggly pink bollworms ‘Frankenstein’ emerged from their eggs and munched through the lovely cotton lint and chewed on the seeds.
