There is a major crisis in the cotton growing region of Maharashtra, and the government is blind to the looming disaster. Field after field in various districts of Vidarbha that planted cotton during the Rabi sowing season have seen their crop infested with the Pink Bollworm and farmers have no clue as to how to resolve the issue. They had recently opted for Bt Cotton after years of fierce resistance when they were finally persuaded and given to understand that this biotechnologically modified seed could resist all pests and diseases.

Last year, farmers in adjoining districts of Telangana noticed the Pink Bollworm had now become resistant to pesticides and the Bt Cotton plant was vulnerable to these pests. Yet, with the Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR) headquartered in Nagpur, farmers were not given any warning against the likely spread of the Pink Bollworm to neighbouring Vidarbha district.

Cotton farmers have lost 80 to 90 per cent of their crop. Their yield this season is forecast to be around five to six per cent. CICR reports an innovative way to combat the moth is to set pheromone traps across their fields and catch enough of the male of the species to prevent further breeding, however, farmers who have used it reported little or no results.

Farmers are not so uninformed, they say the Union government was aware in August that parts of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra had been infested with the Pink Bollworm and ordered seed companies to compensate the affected farmers for their loss, however, it is in November- December that the moths really begin to breed in large numbers