Farmer Shrikant Bhandwal­kar used the strongest and most expensive pesticides, yet his cotton crop was damaged by a new variety of sucking pests. “A new type of pest has come and is stunting the plant. So, the yield is low,” said the farmer. Apart from high production costs, low selling prices and hurdles to insurance claims, farmers in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region are reeling under a decline in crop yields. “Ten years ago, I grew 15 quintals of cotton on one acre of land. This year I harvested 10 quintals per acre because of crop damage by the new pest. We use the strongest pesticides, and yet the pest damages the crops,” Bhandwalkar said. Farmers across the 11 districts of Vidarbha mainly grow hybrid (GM) Bt cotton, introduced in the early 2000s. Initially, the yield more than doubled. Farmer Rameshwar Kale said the problem with Bt cotton was the pests. “Farmers were lured by the high yield from Bt cotton seeds in the initial few years. But now they are suffering. The old (indigenous cotton) seeds are no longer available in the market.” Bhandwalkar said farming had already become non-lucrative and if the trend continued, farmers would be forced to sell their land to companies that may engage in contract farming. Keshav Kranthi, one of India’s leading crop entomologists, cautioned that Bt cotton’s benefits had been “modest and largely ephemeral”: rapidly spreading Bt-resistance in the pink bollworm led Indian cotton farmers “to spend more on insecticides than before they adopted Bt seeds”. The Telegraph (India)

 

 

A northern Ontario beekeeper is sounding the alarm after discovering most of her bees had died earlier this year. Janice Mitchell discovered she had lost thousands of bees across 15 colonies in February 2024. She decided to send some of the deceased bees away for testing. Most of those tested had high levels of glyphosate, a toxic herbicide found in products like Roundup. According to the lab, the dead bees contained 0.57pmm of glyphosate. Health Canada guidelines say the maximum acceptable concentration for a human in a glass of drinking water is 0.28pmm and these bees contained twice that according to the lab. Mitchell said the constant soothing hum she would hear in her ears when outside has gone silent these days. Mitchell is encouraging other beekeepers to consider testing their colonies for chemicals such as glyphosate. Daily Guardian

 

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