FOCUS ON ASIA
http://www.gmwatch.org/asia.asp

Monsanto-India's PR person Ranjana Smetacek - a name strikingly similar to that of Monsanto's fake e-mail front for its Internet poison pen campaign, Andura Smetacek - claims the copmpany has achieved an almost five-fold increase over 2003 in sales of its packets of GM (Bt) cotton seeds.

If the latest claims turn out to be true - and very few of Monsanto's previous claims have! - then it is a remarkable tribute to Monsanto PR propaganda campaign in India and the power of hype.

According to Smetacek, the increased sales "demonstrate that the Indian farmer is willing to adopt a technology that delivers consistent benefits from reduced pesticide use and increased income".

Consistent benefits? Increased income? Ranjana's claims may not be as overtly poisonous as her Monsanto counterpart Andura's, but they are certainly as deceptive.

In the first year of GM cotton production in India, a whole series of studies showed that Bt cotton had proven a failure and had contributed to farmer debt. Yet even in the face of such evidence, and with angry farmers demanding compensation for their losses, Monsanto claimed GM cotton growing in India had been a big success and that any indications otherwise were down to the very dry weather. http://www.mindfully.org/GE/2003/India-Bt-Cotton-Failure8feb03.htm

In the second year of production, despite the weather being exceptionally favourable for cotton cultivation, a detailed study by agricultural scientists of GM cotton farming in Andhra Pradesh showed that, even in those circumstances, the benefit/cost ratio was clearly in favour of Non-Bt hybrids.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3405

Needless to say, Monsanto produced its own study claiming big increases in yield, huge reductions in pesticide use, and big profits for Bt farmers. However, this study was conducted by a marketing agency, which contacted farmers through questionnaires just once! To give a sense of the gap between the two studies, the Monsanto study claimed farmers' profits were *100 times higher* than those found in the detailed study.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3405

Yet the Indian Government, far from offering any redress to farmers who had suffered losses or punishing the company which has used such misleading hype to promote this technology, actually bowed to industry pressure and reinforced the false claims of success with GM seeds by signalling it wanted to see fast track approval of GM crops.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4217

With such poor leadership in the face of industry's onslaught, India remains in danger, as Devinder Sharma has warned, of becoming the industry's GM dustbin!

[for more on Ranjana Smetacek's poisonous namesake, see Andura's profile:
http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=153]
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Monsanto's BT cotton seed sales soar
By S. Srinivasan, Associated Press Writer September 7, 2004
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2004/09/07/monsantos_bt_cotton_seed_sales_soar/

BANGALORE, India -- U.S. seed giant Monsanto Co. said Tuesday it has sold 1.3 million packets of genetically modified cotton seeds in India this year, recording an almost five-fold increase over 2003 sales.

The stronger sales "demonstrate that the Indian farmer is willing to adopt a technology that delivers consistent benefits from reduced pesticide use and increased income," Ranjana Smetacek, the spokeswoman of the Indian operations of St. Louis-based Monsanto, told The Associated Press.

The figures are for the 2004 sowing season, which runs from June to August.

In 2003, Monsanto sold 230,000 packets of 450 grams each and in 2002, the first year the company was allowed to sell bio-engineered cotton in India, it sold around 72,000 packets.

Monsanto's BT cotton, the only genetically modified crop allowed in India, has faced stiff opposition from environmental groups, which dampened its sales in the last two years. Monsanto's office in the southern city of Bangalore was last year attacked by protesters.

Critics say the adverse effects of GM seeds have not been studied adequately, that the seeds are environmentally hazardous and could contaminate the genes of native varieties through cross pollination, eventually making farmers poorer.

However, advocates of genetic modification say it helps fight plant diseases, increase yield and improves the nutritive value of food crops.

BT stands for bacillus thuringiensis, a bacterium whose gene is injected into cotton seeds to give them resistance against boll worms, a major concern for farmers in India.

The Indian government allows BT cotton cultivation in six of its 29 states. The six states are in the western and southern parts of the country. However, in the fertile northern states, BT cotton is illegally planted by some farmers.

Four strains of BT cotton seeds are currently sold in India and scientists have developed at least one Indian variant of Monsanto's seeds.

On the Net:
Monsanto's Indian subsidiary: http://www.monsantoindia.com