Monsanto UK

In recent weeks several commentators and campaign groups have alleged links between the use of GM insect-resistant cotton in India and the incidence of suicide among Indian farmers. In fact, suicide among farmers in India is a tragic situation which has pre-dated the 2002 introduction of Bt cotton by many decades.

But this month a new extensive report, published by the independent organisation IFPRI (the International Food Policy Research Institute) has shown the most clear evidence yet that this sad and tragic situation has a number of causes, but that Bt cotton is not a major causal factor.

The full 64 page report, titled "Bt cotton and Farmer Suicides in India: Reviewing the evidence", is available to read on the IFPRI web site at: http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/dp/IFPRIDP00808.pdf, and analyses a large evidence base from many sources.

As the report states "Suicides in general, including farmer suicides, are a sad and complex phenomenon. Hence their underlying causes need to be addressed within an equally complex societal context".

In particular, the report concludes that:

1. "There is no evidence in available data of a "resurgence" of farmer suicides in India in the last five years"

2. "Bt cotton technology has been very effective overall in India"

3. (The IFPRI analysis) "clearly shows that Bt cotton is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for the occurrence of farmer suicides. In contrast, many other factors have likely played a prominent role".

In fact the report shows that the overall rate of suicide in Indian farmers has declined since the introduction of Bt cotton.

The report adds significantly to a previous 2006 report by the Indira Gandhi Institute of development research, which identified a range of interrelated causal factors, the most important of which were indebtedness, deterioration of economic status, conflict with other family members, crop failure, decline in social position, burden of daughters’/sisters’ marriages, among other causes.

This report available at: http://www.igidr.ac.in/suicide/ExecutiveSummary_SFM_IGIDR_26Jan06.pdf

Latest Indian Government statistics show that cotton yields have doubled since the introduction of Bt cotton in 2002