FSII-NSAI Study - Up to 30% of India's Cotton Area Under Illegal GM Hybrids

Gist A field study indicates that up to 30% of India's cotton cultivated area in 2025-26 is planted with unapproved Genetically Modified GM hybrids. Farmers are increasingly adopting unauthorised Herbicide-Tolerant HT and advanced insect-resistant traits to counter soaring manual weeding costs and emerging pest threats like the pink bollworm. This widespread adoption highlights a growing shadow market that effectively bypasses India's established biosafety and regulatory approval systems. Background Currently, the Indian government officially permits the cultivation of GM cotton containing only two specific genes: cry1Ac and cry2Ab . These legally approved genes are isolated from Bacillus thuringiensis Bt , a naturally occurring soil bacterium, and they code for proteins that are toxic to certain bollworm insect pests. Before this widespread illegal adoption, farmers relied strictly on these approved Bt hybrids for pest control and on manual labour for weeding. However, as pests developed resistance to first-generation Bt genes and agricultural labour became scarce, a demand vacuum was created for unapproved, next-generation GM traits. Key Pointers The unapproved cp4-epsps gene provides cotton plants with tolerance to glyphosate , a non-selective herbicide…