The Tamil Nadu agriculture department has recently decided to incentivise farmers in the Cauvery Delta region to use the indigenously-developed Surabhi cotton seeds, instead of the Bt variety, by subsidising the former by almost 50%. The government aims to reduce input costs for farmers and bring down water consumption. The cost of 1 kg of Bt cotton seeds is `400 and Surabhi costs just `188 per kg. Now, with 50% subsidy, the price of Surabhi can come down further to under `100 per kg. Experts also say that Surabhi is resistant to 42 kinds of pests.
Surabhi, an extra-long staple cotton variety, was developed by the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR), Regional Station in Coimbatore in the 90s. It was one of the indigenous varieties whose popularity wavered after the Bt cotton variety took over India.
While Bt cotton has had its share of success across the country, there have been recent reports on how a few varieties of the genetically modified crop have become vulnerable to some pests. Without getting into the ideological discourse, some of the arguments put forth by experts are that the Bt variety can adversely impact the quality of soil, rendering it useless after repeated use.
In Tamil Nadu, farmers in the rain-fed areas of the Cauvery Delta have been struggling with the high cost of Bt cotton. Farmers in the region slowly diversified their cropping patterns to include cotton after paddy took a beating due to the dry spell.
It has also been claimed that Bt cotton would require more water than Surabhi. While the benefits of Surabhi are many, concerns around productivity also have to be kept in mind. The need of the hour is to pump more money into agricultural research to enable scientists here to test and introduce more varieties of food crops too. This will not only help farmers save money, but also make agriculture more sustainable.