Bt cotton can kill farm animals, Andhra Govt cautions farmers

[Guest guest]

These seem to be the results of using Bt cotton.

 

Bt cotton can kill farm animals, Andhra Govt cautions farmers

 

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=668d24de-52af-419a-b44\

8-f816af6960e5

 

Caritas raps BT Cotton, encourages farmers to use natural methods

http://www.theindiancatholic.com/newsread.asp?nid=7868

 

 

 

 

However -- this is what we are told about Bt Cotton .

 

Bt cotton

http://edugreen.teri.res.in/EXPLORE/bio/Btcot.htm

Cotton and other monocultured crops require an intensive use of pesticides as

various types of pests attack these crops causing extensive damage. Over the

past 40 years, many pests have developed resistance to pesticides.

 

So far, the only successful approach to engineering crops for insect

tolerance has been the addition of Bt toxin, a family of toxins originally

derived

from soil bacteria. The Bt toxin contained by the Bt crops is no different from

other chemical pesticides, but causes much less damage to the environment.

These toxins are effective against a variety of economically important crop

pests

but pose no hazard to non-target organisms like mammals and fish. Three Bt

crops are now commercially available: corn, cotton, and potato.

 

As of now, cotton is the most popular of the Bt crops: it was planted on

about 1.8 million acres (728437 ha) in 1996 and 1997. The Bt gene was isolated

and

transferred from a bacterium bacillus thurigiensis to American cotton. The

American cotton was subsequently crossed with Indian cotton to introduce the

gene into native varieties.

 

The Bt cotton variety contains a foreign gene obtained from bacillus

thuringiensis. This bacterial gene, introduced genetically into the cotton

seeds,

protects the plants from bollworm (A. lepidoptora), a major pest of cotton. The

worm feeding on the leaves of a BT cotton plant becomes lethargic and sleepy,

thereby causing less damage to the plant.

 

Field trials have shown that farmers who grew the Bt variety obtained 25%–75%

more cotton than those who grew the normal variety. Also, Bt cotton requires

only two sprays of chemical pesticide against eight sprays for normal variety.

According to the director general of the Indian Council of Agricultural

Research, India uses about half of its pesticides on cotton to fight the

bollworm

menace.

 

Use of Bt cotton has led to a 3%–27 increase in cotton yield in countries

where it is grown.

 

 

 

blessings

Shan