Brazil GMO crackdown seen leading to $30m in cotton losses
Dow Jones News Service 23.june.06

SAO PAULO - The discovery of illegal Monsanto (MON) transgenic cotton plants on roughly 18,000 hectares of Brazilian cotton farms caused a quarantine of those fields by federal authorities this week and will likely amount to $30 million in losses, according to Brazil's Cotton Producers Association, or Abrapa.
"Farmers are more than a bit worried. Some say that they didn't know the plants were GMO," said Abrapa President Joao Carlos Jacobsen about the prohibited Roundup Ready Fiex Cotton, a genetically modified cotton seed that helps control the spread of weeds.
Abrapa estimates that 6,400 metric tons of cotton will be destroyed as a result. Brazil's government only allows for the planting of Monsanto's Bollgard cotton, another transgenic variety, in a few experimental fields. Bollgard cotton makes the plant more resistant to the boll weevil, one of the most damaging pests to cotton. Twenty properties throughout Brazil's top cotton-producing states were discovered this month to be using transgenic cotton. Government authorities are currently in Goias, the nations No. 3 producer.
The National Biosecurity Commission, or CTNBi0, said farmers would not be permitted to plant cotton on those fields in the 2006-07 crop. That doesn't mean farmers will plant less cotton, however. Most cotton farmers also plant soy and raise cattle, so they could move crops to other fields without reducing output.
Requests for permission to use GMO crops are currently being stalled at CTNBi0 under various political bottlenecks. CTNBi0 currently has a backlog of roughly 80 requests for experimental field tests for GMO corn, soy, rice and cotton, among other things.
Abrapa said it will enter talks with the government in the days ahead to reverse a decision by the Agriculture Ministry to destroy the plants. Most farmers, including cotton producers, are currently facing heavy debt burdens and will be unable to handle additional losses, Jacobsen said.
The government has already announced two emergency farm aid packages in the last two months in response to the farm crisis.
Brazilian cotton producers buy transgenic seeds illegaily from Paraguay and Argentina, where the Monsanto brands are legally sold, Jacobsen said.
A director at a cotton industry association said, on the condition of anonymity, that at least 25% of Brazil's cotton crop was GMO cotton. "1 talk to so many farmers every day and they all teil me that they are experimenting with the seeds. 1 think they'll bite the bullet this year, but l'm certain they will plant more again next year. They can't afford to keep spending all this money on agrotoxins," the source said.
Cash crunches on Brazilian cotton farms led to a 20% reduction in the 2005-06 cotton crop. Brazil produced 2.7 million metric tons in the 2005-06 crop, compared to 3.4 million in 2004-05. Planted area was reduced by 28% nationwide to 845,300 hectares, and as much as 49% in mid-sized producer states like Mato Grosso do Sul. Production yields for lint cotton have improved and some farm groups thank GMO for that, hitting 1,238 kilograms per hectare in the 2005-06 crop compared to 1,101 kilograms in the 2004-05 season. Total lint cotton production for 2005-06 will fall 19.4% to 1 million tons, according to figures from the National Commodities Supply Corp., or Conab, because of reduction in planted area.
"Farmers are desperate. These seeds save them at least $250 a hectare," said Andrew MacDonald, president of the Brazil Cotton Association, or Abrag. Brazil is the No. 4 cotton exporter, trailing China, the U.S. and India.
"India was a net importer of cotton until they introduced Bollgard cotton, now they are exporting and are on their way to becoming a textile powerhouse. Their farmers don't spend as much on pesticides as Brazilians do," MacDonald said.
"I can understand the environmental concerns regarding cross pollination of GMO cotton with traditional cotton. But 1 don't see how spraying more and more pesticide into the soil and water table is a better alternative," MacDonald said. Copyright DJCS

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