A dosi letali il parassita sopravvive in prove di laboratorio. I maligni già sospettano che il parassita arrivi al momento giusto per spingere i coltivatori ad acquistare per l’imminente campagna di semina la nuova varieta’ di cotone Bt piu’ resistente e piu’ costosa. Nel 2010 forse il 90% di tutto il cotone indiano derivera’ da cotone OGM del tipo Bt.
India: Hardy Cotton-Munching Pests Are Latest Blow to GM CropsPallava Bagla
Monsanto has revealed that a common insect pest has developed resistance to its flagship genetically modified (GM) product in India. The agricultural biotechnology leader says it “detected unusual survival” of pink bollworms that fed on cotton containing the Cry1Ac gene from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, which codes for a protein that’s toxic to many insect pests. In a statement to Science, Monsanto claims that the finding from western India “is the first case of field-relevant resistance to Cry1Ac products, anywhere in the world.”
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Il cotone Bt indiano ha raggiunto l’84% di tutte le superfici coltivate a cotone ed e’ usato da 5 milioni di contadini indiani in media su campi di 1,5 ettari a testa.
Quante falsita’ abbiamo sentito in questo Paese sulla vicenda dei suicidi dei contadini. Dall’agenzia di stampa Reuters (qui)
In India in 2008, 5 million small farmers, (up from 3.8 million farmers in 2007) benefited from planting 7.6 million hectares of Bt cotton, equivalent to a high adoption rate of 82%. Benefits will vary according to varying pest infestation levels in different years and locations. However, on average, conservative estimates for small farmers indicate that yield increased by 31%, insecticide application decreased by 39%, and profitability increased by 88% equivalent to US$250 per hectare. In addition, in contrast to the families of farmers planting conventional cotton, families of Bt cotton farmers enjoyed emerging welfare benefits including more prenatal care and assistance with at-home births for women, plus a higher school enrollment of their children, a higher percentage of whom were vaccinated.
KARACHI - Farmers will start growing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton with official permission from next kharif, Federal Textile Minister Rana Farooq Mohammad Khan informed a gathering of local businessmen on Thursday at Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Il cotone da OGM in India non ha cambiato la percentuale di suicidi di contadini, ma ha aumentato la redditivita’ per ettaro. Gli scienziati pro-OGM del settore si dolgono che OGM ed approcci ecologici non possano essere visti come le due gambe su cui spingere per poter ridurre l’impatto dei pesticidi. Sono sempre piu’ insistenti le spinte ad usare OGM in agricoltura biologica.
Scarica l’articolo (qui)


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