27 Million Packs Of Bt Cotton Sold In India This Season
9 September 2008 In 2007, 16 million packets of Bt cotton were sold in India; so far this season, sales have reached approximately 27 million packets of Bt cotton hybrid seeds worth over US $448,207,878. Industry sources report that around 23 million of the packets sold incorporate Monsanto’s proprietary “Bollgard” (BG) gene technologies. These include 17 million packets of BG-I (based on the cry1Ac gene) and six million packets of second-generation BG-II (containing a stacked combination of cry1Ac and cry2Ab genes).
An additional estimated one million packets are JK Agri Genetics Ltd’s “Event-1” technology. More than two million illegal Bt seed packets are also said to have been purchased this year.
Business Line reports that “Roughly 90% of the country’s 9.3 million-9.4 million hectares (23 million acres) cotton area this year will be planted under Bt hybrids.”
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