Monsanto’s GMO cotton in India failing to control insects

St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports:

A genetically modified cotton produced by Monsanto is failing to control pests in four Indian states, the company said last week.

The survival of the pink bollworm in Monsantos Bollgard brand cotton was detected in four of the nine Indian states where the cotton is grown.

A spokesman for the Creve Coeur-based company said it is taking the matter "very seriously" and will continue to monitor the situation with the help of a team of Indian-based experts. The detection has been reported to the Indian Genetic Engineering Committee, the company said.

The cotton is engineered to resist the pink bollworm, a pest that can ruin crops. However, testing was conducted to assess resistance to Cry1Ac, the Bt protein in the crop, and insects were found to be surviving it.

The company said Friday that the resistance could be occurring because the required refuge areas were not planted by farmers and some may have used unapproved Bt cotton seed.

Recently, Indias environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, said the country should be more cautious in adopting genetically modified crops.

Ramesh imposed a freeze on commercial cultivation of Monsantos Bt brinjal, or eggplant, until further health and environmental safety tests can be conducted. The Bt brinjal is the first genetically modified food crop grown in the country.

Both the Bollgard cotton and brinjal were developed in conjunction with Mahyco, an India-based seed company that helped Monsanto introduced Bollgard cotton to the country in 2002.