Herbicide-tolerant cotton grows clandestinely in Vidarbha while the government tries to curb GM adoption under NGO pressures
When politics and ideology influence scientific decisions, people scorn regulators and take autonomous actions that can have grave consequences.
“Because of Bt, in my areas 90 percent of farmers do cotton,” says Dilip Rao Nandokh, 45, of Jalna district’s Malkapur village. “Otherwise our plight would have been like that of the Vidarbha people.” Nandokh has nine acres, two of which he bought for Rs 14 lakh each, on which he grows cotton with drip irrigation. These gave him 45 quintals. An intercrop of cauliflower yielded Rs 2.5 lakh in four months. His son, graduating in agricultural studies, wishes to pursue post-graduation in entomology, and take up a job at the nearly Mahyco facility, while tending to his farms.
(This story appears in the 15 November, 2013 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)