Bt Cotton Is Potential Economic Saviour Of Chinese Province
By
Apisit Buranakanonda
Cotton is reasserting itself for the first time in more than a decade as a major crop in Chenliuying village, located 450 km south of Beijing in Hebei province, thanks to a new transgenic strain.
Farmers say that worm-resistant Bt cotton has given them hope that Hebei can regain its economic pre-eminence.
In the 1980s the province was China's third-largest cotton farming area with 6.2 million rai (about the size of Nakhon Si Thammarat province), yielding over one million tonnes of cotton.
Nevertheless, cotton farming became a money-losing enterprise when bollworms began to attack the plants in the 1990s, and many farmers abandoned their crops.
They were not only bearing hefty chemical costs and health risks due to excessive chemical exposure, but bollworms were gradually developing resistance to chemicals.
Furthermore, chemicals posed a threat to the water supply of people living nearby to the cotton farms.
Chen Chi Ming, a local farmer, said this year was the first time in the past decade that cotton farming had become active again.
Farmers are enthusiastic about the new cotton. There are 61 households that grow the Bt-cotton compared with three households a year ago.
(Bt-cotton is named for Bacillus
thuringiensis, which was introduced into cotton stems through genetic manipulation. The bacillus is lethal to bollworms as it disrupts their digestive and nervous systems.)
The average gross yield from Bt cotton is about 640 kg per rai (including seeds, lint and other byproducts), an increase of 15% compared with conventional strains.
In addition to wheat and cotton, farmers in Chenliuying village plan to extend the Bt cotton farming area from the current 320 rai this year.
Although farmers can collect the seeds, it has been suggested that they get new seeds annually to ensure good germination rates and proper Bt concentration in the seed.
In China, farmers can sell cotton seeds directly to oil crushers.
Executives of the Hebei Shijiazhaung Cotton Textile Mill say the medium fabric length of Bt cotton has made it widely accepted throughout the local textile industry, which has struggled due to an excess of low-quality fabrics.
Bt cotton accounts for 2% of China's total cotton cultivation area of 2.3 million rai in Hebei province.
Yet it is likely that the sales of Bt cotton seeds will continue to grow as farmers can cut the number of applications of bollworm insecticide.
Transgenic cotton is also being commercialised in the United States, Australia and Mexico.
In Thailand, closed field trials are continuing, though it has been claimed that some Bt cotton had found its way into open fields in Loei province.
The Agricultural Ministry of Hebei province reported last year that damage to cotton buds from bollworms was lower than found in traditional varieties, even when no spray was applied to the Bt-cotton.
As well, the number of other natural predators such as wasps, aphid consumer flies and ladybugs was higher in non-Bt fields that applied pesticides, it said.
In Hebei province there are two suppliers of transgenic cotton seeds - Ja Dai Cotton Seed Technology Co, a multinational consortium consisting of Hebei Provincial Seed Industry Group, Singapore Delta and Pine Land China
Pte, and Monsanto ; and the Hebei Academy of Agricultural Science.
Ja Dai currently has production capacity of one million kg of cotton seeds a year.
In China the Bt-cotton seed market is relatively liberal, said Charles Martin, Monsanto 's vice-president for corporate communication Asia-Pacific.
Chinese companies first introduced Bt cotton on a commercial scale in 1994. However, the seeds were not popular at the time due to low germination rates.
Ja Dai decided to improve the product before it was relaunched recently.
James Qi, chief financial officer for Jai Dai, said the Bt cotton seeds sold in China were guaranteed to have germination rates exceeding 80%.
Prior to the marketing stage, the company tried 120 tests over three years before receiving approval from the Ministry of Agriculture.
Li
Fengwen, a senior agronomist and Hebei Seed Industry president, said that Chinese farmers were cautious at first about the safety of the transgenic cotton.
They were concerned about wearing clothing made from Bt cotton or consuming vegetable oil made from the seeds.
Their fear was overcome with education about the products, he said.
Bio-safety protocol in China is stringent, with new applications required to satisfy authorities in terms of environmental safety only after the crops have been tested for at least three cultivation seasons.
New applicants need to cultivate the plants first in well protected greenhouses, then in closed field trials and finally in open fields.
The China National Academy of Medical Science for Prevention checked toxicity and side effects of the cotton, compared with conventional strains, on animals.
The tests covered protein, cotton hydroxybenzene and fat content inside the seed.
It showed there was no difference between the two varieties. Subsequent feeding tests showed no harmful effects on animals and plants.
As a result, producers were then able to seek permission for commercialisation of the products from the Ministry of Agriculture.
China liberalised its cotton industry on September 1 and the country now has a total cultivation area of 26.2 million
rai.
Last year the country produced 4.3 million tonnes of cotton. Output this year is forecast to drop slightly to four million tonnes as farmers reduce cultivation areas.
In the first seven months of this year, China exported 107,568 tonnes of cotton to world markets.
The government had been giving subsidies of about 12,000 baht per tonne for cotton exports because it had bought the crop from farmers at above world market prices.
Cotton in China is now trading at 40,000 baht per tonne for standard grade and the outlook for prices is buoyant.
Dated
:
26 October 1999
Copyright 1999 Bangkok Post All Rights Reserved.
