Publication: The Hindu Business Line
Date: Wednesday, June 14, 2006

The Indian Seed Industry Association (ISIA) has said that affordable prices of Bt cotton technology in China had helped it become a global leader in cotton production

"It is the main reason for China to become a global leader in cotton production with almost twice the average yield of India," Mr M. Prabhakar Rao, President of ISIA, said

Two companies, Biocentury Transgene Technology Co Ltd (BTC) and Monsanto, through a joint venture offered Bt technology. BTC, which got the technology from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) that developed the indigenous technology, sold it to more than 30 private and provincial seed companies

Cost of Bt seed "They (BTC) don't collect royalty on each packet a company sells. They take a lumpsum payment of $60,000 (about Rs 27 lakh) a year from each company irrespective of their sales," he said. This method helped reduce the difference between Bt and non-Bt seeds to a minimum. And as a result, seed prices were made affordable to farmers and increased the acreage very fast

Monsanto technology was sold through a joint venture company. The royalty component was said to be 19 per cent of the wholesale seed price and comes to about $2 (Rs 90) a kg of seeds, the ISIA President said

In China, the Bt cotton hybrid seeds are sold in 500g or 350g packs (unlike in India where 450-gm packs are sold). The cost of packet varies between $7.2 and $8. As per the information available from various industry sources, more area was planted with CAAS technology seeds as compared to that of Monsanto technology. The CAAS technology was becoming increasingly popular because of the wide variety of choices, lower costs and good bollworm control, he said

Competition Mr Rao said China developed Bt technology in the public sector even before Monsanto's technology was approved, allowing more competition

"This is the main reason for the competition in the market place and affordable seed prices in China. In India, the delay in the development of Bt technology in the public sector research and resultant monopoly of technology raised the seed prices," he said. Stating that this has increased the burden on farmers, he appealed to the Government to source such technology for commercial use in India by making one time payment to the developer and make it available to the farmers at a more affordable price