Both the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council of Karnataka have passed a bill that would allow fixing the sales price of Bt cotton seeds.
The Karnataka Transgenic and Genetically Modified Cotton Seeds (Fixation of Sale Price and Payment of Compensation) Bill, 2015, passed last weekend, not only allows fixing the sales price of transgenic and Bt cotton seeds, but also makes a provision to compensate farmers in case of failure of genetically-modified or transgenic cotton crops.
According to the Bill, in the case of crop failure, the responsibility to compensate farmers suitably would be on transgenic and the Bt cotton seed producers.
In 2013 kharif season, Bt cotton crop failed on more than 60,000 hectares in Ballari, Belagavi, Chitradurga, Davangere and the other districts of Karnataka, the state minister of agriculture, Krishna Gowda said while tabling the bill in the Assembly.
