by Our Foreign Desk

US biotech transnational Monsanto threatened India at the weekend with removal of its technology in the face of government plans to cut royalty fees.

The corporation claimed that it would be problematic to bring in new technologies because it was becoming difficult to recoup its investments in research and development of genetically modified seeds.

Shilpa Divekar Nirula, who heads Monsanto’s India unit, said that if a cut is imposed on the fees that local seed companies pay to use its crop genes, the company would have to re-evaluate its position in the country.

Ms Nirula said it was difficult for Mahyco Monsanto Biotech (India) Ltd (MMBL), the company’s joint venture, “to justify bringing new technologies into India in an environment where such arbitrary and innovation-stifling government interventions make it impossible to recoup research and development investments.”

The government ordered in December that cotton seed prices, including royalties on seeds, be controlled from the 2016-17 crop year.

The Agriculture Ministry has set up a committee to determine the price of cotton seed, including fees the company charges for licensing crop genes.

“If the committee recommends imposing a sharp mandatory cut in the trait fees paid on Bt-cotton seeds [a genetically modified variety which is toxic to some pests], MMBL will have no choice but to re-evaluate every aspect of our position in India,” Mr Nirula added.

Monsanto pronounced itself “shocked and disappointed” at government plans to reduce the “trait fees” that seed companies pay Mahyco Monsanto to use its crop genes by about 70 per cent.

About 7 million farmers in India use Monsanto’s genetically modified cotton seeds, making the country one of the world’s biggest producers of cotton and a major exporter of raw cotton.

However, farm activists say that the pest resistance of the seeds has declined, forcing farmers to use more insecticide on their cotton crops.

GM plants are grown from seeds engineered to resist insects and herbicides, add nutritional benefits or otherwise improve crop yields and increase the global food supply.

India has allowed the use of GM seeds for cotton only, insisting that further study is needed to guarantee consumer safety before GM food crops can be grown.