Bt cotton helps India increse farm income by Rs 558 crores

New Delhi, Feb 22 (UNI) Cultivation of the insect-resistant Bt cotton, the only transgenic crop allowed to be growth in India, has increased the farm income by Rs 558 crores with this biotech crop benefitting the farmers world over by 5.7 billion dollars, an international study said.

" After almost a decade of commercialisation, biotech crops have made a singnificant impact on the global economy and environment, decreasing the reliance on pesticides and reducing envionmental footprints of chemical sprayings by 14 per cent", said the study authored by Graham Brookes, direction PG Economics who has been analyzing impact of policy and technology change of European farming for past 20 years.

"Since 1996, adoption of biotech crops has contributed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and decreased pesticide spraying", said the study that covers socio-economic and environmental impact of biotech crops.

In addition to environmental gains from biotech crops, the cumulative income of total 27 billion dollars has been derived from combination of enhanced productivity and efficiency gains in the world which is equivelent to adding 3 to 4 per cent to the value of global production of the four main biotech crops incluiding GM maize, soybean, and cotton.

More than 8.25 million farmers in 21 countries, including five that of European, around the world have adopted biotech crops , and 90 per cent of those are resource-poor producers localted in devleoping countries.

In India, an area of 13 lakh out of total 90 lakh hecrates was under Bt cotton last season engaging 10 lakh farmers.

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