The genetically modified Monsanto Bt cotton seeds is not patented in India. and Monsanto has earned huge royalties on the crop without a patent. This changed the economics of cotton farming in India, but the government has just woken up to this reality. This awakening has come 13 years after the US multinational Monsanto launched the seeds in the country.

The Bollgard version of the seeds was introduced by Monsanto in 2002. These have an inherent resistance against bollworm, a common pest for cotton crop. The Mon-531 or cry1Ac gene, which was used in the seed, was not patented by Monsanto in India. Monsanto launched the Bollgard II variety in 2006, which had a patent.

Indian scientists could freely use the same cry1Ac gene to develop indigenous varieties and supply them to farmers through government channels as Monsanto did not have a patent for the Bollgard version. Monsanto, however, held misinformation for the gene, which ended all these efforts.

Researchers at the University of Agriculture Sciences (UAS), Dharwad, Karnataka, developed an indigenous seed in 2008, which they found contained the cry1Ac gene. On Ministry of Environment and Forests’ directions, Dharwad Bt was not used commercially due to an assumption that Monsanto had a patent on this gene. Farm activist Vijay Jawandhia took up the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union agriculture secretary Siraj Hussain, last month had written to the DG of Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), requesting the agency to examine the possibility of using cry1Ac gene in developing Bt cotton varieties after obtaining necessary permissions from the genetic engineering appraisal committee (GEAC).