The RSS-affiliated Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) has asked the government to remove Rs 49 royalty on genetically modified (Bt) cotton seeds, using Bollgard-II (BG-II) technology from the US company Monsanto. In a letter to the Joint Secretary (Seeds), Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Ashwani Kumar, national co-convenor of the SJM Ashwani Mahaja averred that the BT-II trait for which the government had fixed Rs 49 as trait value or royalty in 2016 and 2017 has become ineffective post 2015. "I request you to correct the mistakes done in the past by removing the trait value (royalty) for BG-II and reduce the MSP of Bt cotton seeds to farmers.
"….. The act of reducing the MSP of Bt cotton seeds would give some relief to the farmers."
He alleged that the trait developers have been misguiding the government on the “magic increase” in cotton productivity which he averred was "false propaganda" put out to cover up for the failure of Bt cotton and was a means to justify the collection of Rs 8000 crore in the form of royalty.
SJM Ashwani Mahaja quotes data, "From the published data of the Ministry of Agriculture, it is very clear that the cotton productivity hovered only between 450 kg to 500 kg in the period starting from 2007 till 2018. The BT cotton area was only 15 per cent of the total cotton planted in 2006 whereas it is 95 per cent over the last 7-8 years.” He also said the government should not encourage monopoly of Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech Limited (MMBL) by keeping the seed value of BG-I seeds low while being fully aware of the fact that the cost of production of BG-I seeds cannot be lower as compared to BG-II seeds. He was of the view that the same seed value should be maintained for both BG-I and BG-II seeds.
"The differential pricing between BG-I and BG-II is encouraging the monopoly of MMBL as nobody would produce BG-I seeds and incur loss. Due to this the farmers are suffering as BG-I seeds are not available in the market and they are compelled to buy only BG-II seeds thereby paying Rs 49 extra and thereby benefitting MMBL."
