The National Seeds Association of India (NSAI) is unhappy with the recent announcements made by the Maharashtra agriculture minister with regard to seed companies. The minister had announced that seed supplier companies shall compensate farmers for the losses incurred due to pink bollworm. NSAI director-general Kalyan Goswami said that seed companies are only responsible for seed quality parameters as specified under the Seeds Act.
“In case of BT cotton seeds supplied in Maharashtra there is no problem with seed quality. No complaints are made by any farmer about seed quality,” he clarified in a statement issued in Pune. “It is a clear case of failure of Monsanto Bt II technology which is called as Bollgard II. The Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR) had declared the fact that Pink bollworms developed resistance two years ago and accordingly, all seed companies had educated farmers about this and even issued newspaper advertisements,” Goswami said.
