There has been a lot of misinformation thrown around the net on this topic.  In short, anti-science campaigners claim that farmers growing biotech cotton in India found their crops were failing, leading to an unsustainable amount of debt for the farmers, prompting a spike in local suicide rates.

While these suicides are tragic, this claim is one of the most widely distributed myths online today. Let’s take a look at the facts.

India’s cotton productivity was one of the lowest in the world mainly due to native pests. Despite widespread use of pesticides, farmers were unable to control the bollworm that sometimes ravaged up to 80% of the crop. Since the introduction of biotech cotton hybrids for commercial cultivation in March 2002, India has become the world’s third largest producer and exporter (after China and the United States) in just a few years and scientists attribute this to higher yields from biotech cotton. Last year, India produced 29 million bales, exporting more than five million of these. Production in India has risen from 13.6 million bales to 24 million bales within two years rising to a record 31.5 million in 2007-08. Once biotech cotton was introduced, exports rose above one million bales to reach a peak of 8.5 million in 2007-08. In fact, biotech cotton farmers in India are experiencing their best economic benefits ever.

Furthermore, in October 2008, the International Food Policy Research Institute released a study called “Bt Cotton and Farmer Suicide in India” which shows no increase in farmer suicides in India due to biotech cotton. The IFPRI study provides a real analysis of all the key factors with a prominent role in Indian debt such as: a lack of formal budget management training; no formal credit institutions; loan interest rates of 20-30%; no debt relief laws for farmers; the unwitting purchase of imitation biotech seed from sham artists; crop failures due to poor weather; lack of an irrigation systems; lack of alternative sources of income outside of agriculture; and personal debts such as endowment obligations for the marriage of daughters and/or family medical bills.

Yet another independent research study – this one completed by the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS) in December 2008 – concluded “Increased Indebtedness Leads to Farmer Suicide.”

In short, Indian farmers are attaining better yields, earning bigger returns on their investment and using less pesticide – which ultimately allows them to afford a much better quality of life for their families.