Biotech Updates

Biotech Crops in India: The Dawn of a New Era

June 18, 2009

"Biotech Crops in India: The Dawn of a New Era" is the latest in a series of biotech documents produced by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) South Asia Office, New Delhi. This publication aims to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date status of the field trials and commercialization of biotech crops in India in 2008. It also includes the most authoritative coverage and statistics of Bt cotton, including hectarage of Bt cotton hybrids planted in India, numbers of farmers growing hybrids and approval of different events and hybrids in India from 2002 to 2008. This document summarizes the national and farm-level impact during the last seven years of commercialization of Bt cotton in India,  taking into account seven independent studies conducted by public institutions. Experiences of many Bt cotton farmers from various cotton growing states have been illustrated in this publication as well.

‘The Dawn of a New Era' is the beginning of biotech-led transformation of agriculture in India. Improved seeds, being the carrier of both the state-of-the-art technology and superior genetics, is the most important input for growth in agriculture. This new era also offers tremendous investment opportunities for both public and private institutions as highlighted in the document. This publication draws substantially from the content of ISAAA Brief 39 Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2008, authored by Dr. Clive James.

For a hard copy of "Biotech Crops in India: The Dawn of a New Era" contact ISAAA South Asia office, New Delhi, India at b.choudhary@cgiar.org or knowledge.center@isaaa.org  Download an e- copy at http://www.isaaa.org/resources/publications/the_dawn_of_a_new_era/download/default.asp (Copy and paste the URL to your web browser)