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Bt Cotton and Integrated Pest Management
The essay by Komarlingam is a direct plea for integrated pest management (IPM) systems to rescue the muchacclaimed Bollgard II (Monsanto’s second-generation hybrid Bt cotton) from imminent collapse. It represents how a ‘top-down’, corporate-driven and much hyped technology was more akin to a ‘hatchet job’ on sustainable cotton farming. Bollgard II was introduced in 2006 because Bollgard I had become ineffective due to pest resistance. Now Bollgard II has also failed because the pink bollworm (PBW) has developed genetic shield (resistance) against it too. It is unlikely that modern biotechnologists would not have known that ‘selective pressure’ would continue to operate, no matter how many cry genes are stacked together; but the greed to make huge profits at the expense of resource-poor small and marginal cotton farmers, particularly in India, is overwhelming. Now, in order to save Bollgard II and the profits thereof, IPM is sought to be introduced.
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