ARTICLE: Witnessing India's GMO cotton revolution

The following is a blog post by Indian cotton farmer Balwinder Kang on the Cornell Alliance for Science website explaining how genetically modified cotton has revolutionized his farm. 

Balwinder Kang has a simple message for those who don’t think Indian farmers like him should be able to utilize the latest technology: come to my farm and judge for yourself.

“To all the people opposing this technology, I would welcome them to come stay with me, and for one crop cycle see how farmers live and see the difference technology makes,” Kang said.

Kang said that critics of biotechnology, be they government officials or activists who “have never been to a farm,” fail to realize how much of a positive impact genetically modified (GM) seeds can have on a farmer’s livelihood.

Kang, however, knows this firsthand. He has been farming full-time since 1984 and has seen a revolution when it comes to GMO cotton. Early in his cotton operation, his costs were going up year after year while yields were going down. Due to increased pest attacks, the quality of what did grow was “going from bad to worse.”

“We were losing money and slowly getting into debt. We saw no way out and every time I would get together with other farmers, the only topic of discussion was how to survive. I thought I’d have to give up farming,” he said.

To read the rest of the blog post, please visit the Cornell Alliance for Science website.