It is worthwhile to mention here that several of the deaths may not be reported.
Though the technology of HYV (High Yielding Varieties) seeds combined with synthetic fertilizers and pesticides had made India self-sufficient in production of food crops and some other commercial crops like cotton, it also has brought in evils like water logging, soil degradation and heavy dependence on external inputs. In the 1950s and 1960s most of the inputs for a farmer were generated in the village itself. With the advent of green revolution in the late sixties, the scenario has undergone a rapid transformation with majority of the inputs like seed, fertilizer and pesticide being purchased form external sources. Due to this farming systems have become unsustainable creating pressure on the farmers, some times leading to suicides.
In this setting, it is expected that a solution to this problem can arise from only technologies like genetically modified crops provided that reliable technology is available to the farmer within his means and at a nearby location. Farmers in India are a competent lot and have always taken to technology like a duck to waters. To understand the psychology of Indian farmer towards the GM technology, we have conducted studies on the reaction of farmers who are cultivating Bt Cotton in Andhra Pradesh state of India (Shourie & Sai 2002). .
2. Practical Experience in Cultivation of Bt Cotton:.
Considerations like expectation of better yield (30 to 40 % more than the local hybrids) and reduction in expenditure on pesticides (again 30 to 40% compared to local hybrids) were found to be responsible for opting towards Bt cotton. Propaganda by the seed dealer, who is the de facto counselor for the farmer, could also influence the farmers.
Practical experiences reveal that there is not much reduction in expenditure on pesticides and apparently this is be due to lack of awareness on part of the farmers or due to the fact that Bt Cotton is grown over a minor fraction of the total area under cotton cultivation and farmers were spraying same amount of pesticide on all the fields irrespective of the fact whether Bt Cotton or non Bt Cotton is grown.
This deal gave Coke control of 60 percent of the Indian's soft drink market in 1993.Goizueta invested $500 million in China's market to build there 23 plants by the end of 1997 (Greising, 1998). ...