GE Cotton Farmer Kalava Buchhayya

Greenpeace researches the difference between farmers growing GE (genetically engineered) and non-GE cotton in India and understands that BT Cotton (a GE variety) does not perform as well as conventional cotton planted and grown using Non-Pesticide Management (NPM) or Organic growing systems. BT cotton is genetically engineered to produce a toxin that protects it from insect pests. Despite having this protection, BT cotton farmers are still advised by seed sellers to spray their crops with a variety of chemical pesticides. Greenpeace has released a report (http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/publications/reports/Picking-Cotton/) documenting the experiences of farmers in Andhra Pradesh. Unlike the seed companies, the farmers Greenpeace met with have not been profiting from BT cotton. Organic farmers have much lower costs of cultivation and therefore are more financially stable than BT cotton farmers who often end the cotton season with crushing debt.