Bt cotton not the panacea, says Dr Zalucki

21 Dec '05

2 min read

Dr Myron Zalucki, a noted entomologist from the University of Queensland, Australia, who was recently at Punjab Agricultural University, believes that India introduced Bt cotton rather hurriedly, without proper understanding of the situation.

He explains that India, especially Punjab, should have conducted a thorough investigation before introducing the genetically modified crop.

He says that other ways to protect crops should have been explored.

Australia adopted Bt cotton after almost ten years of research.

Zalucki stated that Bt cotton was only a technique and not a universal remedy to all the crop problems.

Leading agriculture policy framers and PAU experts claim that BT cotton had led to a drastic reduction in pesticide load almost by 40 per cent.

Zalucki argues that over the years American bollworm will develop immunity to Bt toxin. He also says that while Bt shields from American bollworm, crops still need protection from other pests.

He says that the fact that the Jassid attack on crops has risen in Punjab lately, only proves that Bt is not the answer to everything.

Besides, these seeds are expensive and far from the reach of the small farmers.

He also suggests organic seeds as an alternative if less yield is bearable to the farmer. The input cost here will be low and thus, the profits can be earned even from a lesser output.

Finally, he says that growing the population of friendly insects like spiders in the farm was the only ultimate solution.

He called for the scientific community to never give up research and try to find different safer and more reliable ways to keep pests at bay.

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