How Long Will We (INDIA) oppose Bt ?

Just have a look at following

•Bt cotton. China has successfully planted Bt cotton since 1997 and now, over 7 million small farmers in China are already increasing their income by approximately US$220 per hectare (equivalent to US$1 billion nationally) due, on average, to a 10% increase in yield, a 60% reduction in insecticide application, both of which contribute to a more sustainable agriculture and prosperity of small poor farmers. China is the largest producer of cotton in the world, with 68% of its 5.6 million hectares successfully planted with Bt cotton in 2008.

•Bt rice offers the potential to generate benefits of US$4 billion annually from an average yield increase of 8%, and an 80% decrease in insecticides, equivalent to 17 kg per hectare on China's major staple food crop, rice, which occupies 30 million hectares (Jikun Huang et al, 2005). It is estimated that 75% of all rice in China is infested with the rice-borer pest, which Bt rice controls. China is the biggest producer of rice in the world (178 million tons of paddy) with 110 million rice households (a total of 440 million people based on 4 per family) who could benefit directly as farmers from this technology, as well as China's 1.3 billion rice consumers.

•Phytase maize. China, after the USA, is the second largest grower of maize in the it is principally used for animal feed. Maintaining self-sufficiency in maize and meeting the increased demand for more meat in a more prosperous China is an enormous challenge. For example, China's swine herd, the biggest in the world, increased 100 fold from 5 million in 1968 to over 500 million today. Phytase maize will allow pigs to digest more phosphorus, resulting in faster growth/more efficient meat production, and coincidentally result in a reduction of phosphate pollution from animal waste into soil and extensive bodies of water and aquifers.

The above advantages of Bt cotton, Bt rice and phytase maize, also offer similar benefits to other developing countries, particularly in Asia, (but also elsewhere in the world) which have very similar crop production constraints. Asia grows and consumes 90% of the production from the world's 150 million hectares of rice, and Bt rice can have enormous impact in Asia. It could not only contribute to increase productivity but could also make a substantive contribution to the alleviation of poverty for poor small farmers who represent 50% of the world's poor.

The approval and deployment by China of the most important food and feed crops in the world, biotech rice and maize, to maintain self-sufficiency, China is aiming to achieve MDG 1 “Free from Hunger by 2015”. Looking onto Indian prespective our population is growing by 1.5 % annually that is we are adding 16-17 million peoples every year with the current rate of hunger elimination we will only be able to reach the above target by 2043 really pathetic ! The approval for Bt crop by china can serve as a model for other developing countries.