1.Farmers in rain-deficit Gujarat opt for cotton, the non-Bt variety
2.Five more die in Gujarat Bt cotton field
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1.Farmers in rain-deficit Gujarat opt for cotton, the non-Bt variety
Hiral Dave
Indian Express, Sep 7 2009
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/farmers-in-raindeficit-gujarat-opt-for-cotton-the-nonbt-variety/513684/

When India is moving toward 100 per cent Bt cotton regime, some winds of change has been seen in Gujarat, the leading cotton producer in the country.

Due to the deficient monsoon, farmers have taken to cotton over rain-fed crops like groundnut, to the extent that the area under cotton cultivation has increased by nearly two lakh hectares. Significantly, it's conventional (non-Bt) cotton varieties and not the Bt cotton variety that has caught the attention of the farmers this season.

Cotton acreage has gone up from 24 lakh hectares to nearly 26 lakh hectares, while the area under non-Bt cotton has gone up from 7.5 lakh to 9 lakh hectares in the same period. Last year, Gujarat alone accounted for nearly 1 crore bales of total production of over three crore bales in India.

“Pockets like Surendranagar in Saurashtra, Ahmedabad in central Gujarat and some parts of north Gujarat have opted for conventional varieties,” said N M Sharma, executive director of Gujarat State Cooperative Cotton Federation Limited.
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2. Five more die in Guj Bt cotton field
Rao Jaswant Singh,
Times of India, 6 September 2009
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/jaipur/5-more-die-in-Guj-Bt-cotton-field/articleshow/4977449.cms
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JAIPUR: Barely a week after TOI first reported about the deaths of children in the Bt cotton fields of Gujarat (August 28), five more deaths have been reported from the area, taking the total number of those dead in just over a month to 10. A majority of those dead are children and six are girls.

All those who died had been trafficked from Udaipur-Dungarpur-Banswara region of Rajasthan. They were taken to the Bt cotton fields at Gujarat's Banaskantha district, when the cross-pollination season began in July end.

Ironically, even after so many deaths, the district administration has failed to check the migration and initiate action against the middlemen, who take the children from Rajasthan to Gujarat. Dakshin Rajasthan Majdoor Union, a social organisation working for the welfare of migrant workers, has been spreading awareness and also helping the affected families in their fight for justice.

Executive member of DRMU, Sudhir Katiyar, told TOI that the deceased workers included Bhuri Ben (14), Haju Ben (16), Madi Ben (16) and Ramesh (14) ”” all from Dungarpur district ”” and Basu Hakra Kharadi (13) of Udaipur, Rekha Adela (19) and Nathi Ben (40) of Udaipur, Raju Nemchand (21) of Banswara and one unidentified child worker.

Preliminary investigation by the NGO revealed that Basu Hakra died after congestion and respiratory problems, Rekha and Raju died under mysterious conditions while Nathi Ben died due to snake bite but no post-mortem was done in her case.

Katiyar said that though police have registered a case, investigation is still on and no one has been arrested yet. “The cotton field owners are strong enough and police are hand in glove with them,” he alleged.

He said that the union has now written a letter to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and put forward their demands for proper inquiry and compensation of the victims’ families. The demands included constituting a committee to probe the deaths, compensation of Rs 5 lakh to victims’ families and action against guilty owners.

Father of one of the deceased workers said, “The age of dead children has been manipulated in the official papers. They have been shown as 18 years old. Also, there is no mention that they died while while working on cottonseed plots.”