With the kharif season soon approaching, officials in Telangana are gearing up to tackle a looming threat in the state – Herbicide Tolerant (HT) cotton seeds. In a state where cotton is one of the main crops grown, the officials don’t want to take any chances.
HT cotton is a genetically modified strain developed by US agrochemical company Monsanto. While there is no approval from India’s Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) for the sale and sowing of HT cotton seeds, two major arrests in Hyderabad earlier this month, which resulted in over 2,500 kg of the seeds being seized, highlight the magnitude of the problem.
“Awareness campaigns in the form of distribution of pamphlets, posters and flyers at dealer shops have already been undertaken. A few weeks ago, we formed a multi-disciplinary team with senior officials of the Agriculture department and police personnel. We have seized quite a large quantity of spurious seeds so far,” Rahul Bojja, the state’s Commissioner of Agriculture, tells TNM.
Last week, 15 other teams have left from Hyderabad to 300 to 400 locations across the state to conduct random checks for the same.
A larger issue
It was on a tip-off that the Hyderabad city police, in the first week of May, nabbed two people for illegally transporting and attempting to sell HT cotton seeds in Telangana.
The bust was massive as officials seized 2,005 kg of HT cotton seeds in 50 gunny bags, worth about Rs 32,52,110. The arrest took place near the Secunderabad Railway Station and the main accused was identified as Ravula Rajanikanth, Managing Director of Omkar Seed Tech Pvt. Ltd.
The police said that the seeds were procured from Gandhi Nagar in Gujarat without any valid invoice or delivery challan and the accused planned to sell the unauthorised product claiming that they were genuine seeds.
“The accused packed 450 grams in each bag and planned to deliver the unauthorised seeds to sub-dealers and distributors for Rs 730, thereby cheating innocent farmers and customers by claiming that the seeds were genuine,” the police said in a press release.
Just three days later, officials seized another 522 kg of HT cotton seeds in 24 plastic bags, worth about Rs 8,46,800. The arrest took place near Begumpet in Hyderabad. Officials said they found the product being transported from Ahmedabad in Gujarat in 24 plastic bags and 1,160 sachets with a similar modus operandi and intention.
The accused in this case had even been caught previously, in July 2017, while selling spurious cotton seeds, the police said.
Investigation officials said that this was a violation of the Environment Protection Act, 1986.
A complex problem
“In genetic engineering, there are two popular technologies. One is Bacillus thuringiensis (BT) crops, which are insect resistant; a gene is inserted which produces a toxin to control insects. The second major technology used globally is the HT one,” explains agricultural scientist Dr GV Ramanjaneyulu from the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA).
“There are two kinds of herbicides; one is a herbicide that is advertised as able to kill anything, and then there is a selective herbicide, which can either tackle monocot crops like grains or dicot crops like pulses. So, for example if you are growing a pulse crop, you can only use the grain weed herbicide. The most popular herbicide is glyphosate,” he adds.
Glyphosate is already under scrutiny in India as it has been reported to adversely affect the ecosystem, with the Kerala government banning the substance and the Andhra Pradesh government also taking steps to restrict its sale and usage. Glyphosate is also one of the key ingredients in Roundup, a herbicide produced by Monsanto, which was later acquired by Bayer. The herbicide has already received serious criticism and been pulled up by courts across the globe and forced to pay millions of dollars in fines.
In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a division of the World Health Organization, said that glyphosate was ‘probably carcinogenic to humans’.
“The evidence in humans is from studies of exposures, mostly agricultural, in the USA, Canada, and Sweden published since 2001. In addition, there is convincing evidence that glyphosate also can cause cancer in laboratory animals. Glyphosate also caused DNA and chromosomal damage in human cells,” the agency had said in its report.
Dr Ramanjayelu says that though HT cotton seeds were first seized in Gujarat in 2008, not much has been done about it.
“As farmers shift towards HT cotton, they are likely to use herbicide like Roundup. In India, permission is given for the substance only to be used in tea gardens. Despite this, it is sold across the country all through the year. Farmers buy glyphosate, the HT seeds, and start growing their crops. So, the load of glyphosate in the environment is also increasing,” he says.
After the WHO report was published, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) appointed a committee to look into this issue. The study found that more than 15% of the total area under cotton cultivation during the kharif crop season in 2017 was HT cotton.
Need for regulation
While India has tough laws and regulations for approval of GM crops and demands that companies meet strict bio-safety standards to ensure no harm to its citizens and the environment, activists rue that government officials often have a lax attitude on the issue.
Additionally, in Telangana for example, seed traders are considered influential people and enjoy political clout, thereby making it easier for them to sell spurious seeds to gullible farmers and pass them off as genuine.
Even in the recent bust by the police in Hyderabad, the seeds were packed in a formal manner and packaged professionally.
“This shows that there is big nexus between the chemical herbicide industry and Agriculture department officials. If glyphosate is sold in the month of July or August in a place where it’s not supposed to be used, the government officials know. They should be monitoring it. The government is not taking enough action and it is spreading every year,” Dr Ramanjayelu says.
“Even if we consider the farmer’s situation, they either don’t know, or are lured into using the seeds on the promise of getting quick returns. The complexity of the problem is not explained to them,” he adds, citing a 2009 report by a Parliamentary committee that also raised several concerns.
Dr Ramanjayelu says that another main concern is a lack of data with respect to the Indian context.
“Cotton is a big crop in Telangana. While there may not be an immediate economic loss to the farmer, the bio-safety of glyphosate is tested only in non-farm lands. Now if we use this on the crop, what is its impact on our bodies as well as the farmer who works on the land? No one knows,” he says.
“70% of cotton is seed. The main crop is actually oil, and fibre is incidentally a by-product. This cotton seed oil is edible and we are all eating it, though it is not tested for bio-safety. It will have much larger health implications in the future,” he adds.
Officials vigilant
Meanwhile, officials of the Agriculture department and the police say that they have been vigilant.
Besides the 15 teams from Hyderabad, Rahul Bojja says, “District task force teams have been formed with coordination from District Agricultural Officers and the Addl SPs of each district. They will also be conducting random checks. We have also reached out to farmers and informed them that the result of HT cotton may be immediate and impressive in the short-run, but that the damage that HT does to the fields subsequently and to the produce is much more harmful in the long run.”
“The police have identified a few major areas through which attempts are being made to smuggle the cotton. One is the Adilabad border, where the seed is coming through Maharashtra by road, while another is that the seed is arriving in Guntur and Vijayawada by train and later attempting to enter Telangana by road. The Jadcherla-Mahbubnagar highway is also another such route. Senior police officials have already taken up the task of patrolling the border,” Rahul adds.
A meeting was held on May 24, in which all senior officials of the department were asked to report to Hyderabad. While the meet mainly focussed on an action plan for the kharif season, tackling HT cotton was also one of the topics under discussion.
“On May 24, we had a meeting of all District Agriculture Officers at the National Institute of Plant Health Management in Hyderabad, and one of the issues discussed was how to control the menace of HT cotton,” Rahul said.
Authorities now say that they are prepared to deal with the situation and that there is no cause for concern.