Bollgard cotton brings higher yield, incomes

Higher yields, higher incomes and a lifestyle makeover are some of the things that about 235 farmers in the district are experiencing after cultivation of Bollgard Bt cotton here.

“With cultivation of Bollgard Bt on my four-acre land, I have been able to build a new pucca home worth Rs 350,000, take eight acres of land on lease, send my daughter to convent school and purchase a life insurance for my family,” Baldev Patel, a farmer from Kurali village said.

Conventional seeds produce only seven quintals per acre whereas Bollgard II yield 15 quintals. I have been able to earn Rs 27,500 more per acre and save pesticide costs of about Rs 4,000 per acre, he said.

Vipulbhai Patel, another farmer from Dhavat also has a similar tale to tell, after switching to Bollgard seeds on his seven-acre land.

Bollgard cotton is cultivated over 56.85 lakh acres of land in Gujarat. Over four million farmers cultivated Bollgard BT cotton seeds on 76 per cent of the total 225 lakh acre land in India under cotton in 2008, up from 72,000 acres in 2002, according to Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (MMB), manufacturers of Bt cotton seeds.

Bollgard farmers saved an average of Rs 2,250 per acre by using less pesticides to fight bollworms as compared to conventional seed farmers, MMB claimed.

Post sowing of Bt cotton seeds, cotton farmers in western India (including Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh) earned an additional income of Rs 5,971 crore in 2006, it said.