Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Why is Monsanto miffed at the Indian government?

The world’s largest seed maker, Monsanto, is having a rough time in India.

Last week, the Missouri-based company threatened to shut down its business in India after six decades due to “arbitrary” and “innovation-stifling” decisions by the Indian government. Monsanto’s lashing out was primarily at the Narendra Modi government’s move to regulate the selling price of genetically modified cotton crop seeds in Asia’s third largest economy.

This is the first time that the Indian government has fixed prices for Bt cotton seeds—or genetically modified cotton seed—after its introduction in 2002. Under the new rule, the maximum sale price of Bt cotton seeds has been set at Rs800 ($11.9) for 450 grams, starting April 2017. The seeds were earlier sold at prices ranging from Rs830 ($12.3) to Rs1,000 ($14.8).

But what has irked Monsanto the most is the government’s decision to effectively slash the royalty fee it receives by a staggering 74%. Royalty fee is typically paid by local seed makers to Monsanto. Under the new rule (pdf) notified by India’s agriculture ministry on March 8, Monsanto will only get Rs49 ($0.73) per 450 grams of the seed in comparison to the Rs183 it received earlier. Since 2006, Monsanto is estimated to have received over Rs4,400 crore ($654.5 million) as royalty payments, according to the National Seed Association of India. Full story...

Related posts:
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  2. GM mustard in India: a case of monumental fraud and unremitting...
  3. Modi and Monsanto: a wake up call for India...
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