An Indian technical expert committee recently recommended that the Supreme Court declare a 10-year ban on field trials of GM crops in India. This decision is shortsighted; evidence suggests India has gained immensely from introducing GM cotton and could gain even more from introducing GM varieties to other crops.
Multiple studies have attributed between 30-60 percent increases in cotton yields in India to the adoption of GM varieties, which is much higher than is in the U.S. GM crop varieties are adopted on about 96 per cent of the cotton acreage in India while only on about half of the cotton acreage in the U.S. These higher yields translate to human welfare gains. Many studies have documented that adoption of Bt cotton improved the average profits of farmers and increased farm workers’ safety.
India gained from adopting GM cotton but has lost from not adopting it with other crops. If India had adopted GM corn, its yield gains would have likely been larger than those in the U.S., resulting in lower corn imports, higher earnings to farmers and lower costs for consumers.
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