Maharashtra bans advance booking of Bt cotton seeds
Approximate sale of Bt cotton seeds in 2011-12 season was at 4.2 crore packets. This year, the market size is likely to be around 3.8 crore packets to 4 crore packets as cotton acreage may come down from a little over 12 million hectare in 2011-12 to about 11 million hectare next year, officials said. Last year, the department had estimated a seed demand of 1.80 crore packets of 450 gram each while seed companies had supplied 2.14 crore packets. The actual consumption was at 1.63 crore packets.
Earlier, state agriculture commissioner Umakant Dangat had complained that farmers in Maharashtra have been complaining of shortage of certain varieties of Bt cotton seeds. The government of Maharashtra, however, is going all out to promote other varieties and is encouraging farmers to tap these, he had said.
The government had taken action against Mahyco for supplying only 7-10% of bookings, leading to dissatisfaction among farmers resulting in a ban on the company to sell seeds in Maharashtra, officials pointed out. The sale
