Trial After Error

AGROCHEMICAL AND biotech giant Monsanto’s genetically modified cotton seed business is out of trouble in India; but only for the time being.

- Jitendra

On January 8, the Supreme Court set aside the April 2018 Delhi high court decision that invalidated Monsanto’s patent on Bt cotton seeds. It ordered a single judge trial court bench to hear the case and check the validity of the patent. The case concerns two Bt cotton seed varieties—Bollgard and Bollgard II—that are genetically modified to resist the bollworm pest. No date for the hearing has been set and the case could drag on for at least a couple of more years.

At the crux of the dispute is a 2004 agreement between Monsanto, then a company based in the Netherlands and now owned by Germany’s Bayer, and Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd, a Hyderabad-based agriculture firm. As per the contract, which was valid for 10 years, Nuziveedu, made a one-time payment of 50 lakh to Monsanto to develop genetically modified hybrid cotton seeds using the company’s patented Bt cotton donor seeds. Nuziveedu was also supposed to pay a “trait” fee to Monsanto on the sale of its own seeds once it developed them. This trait fee was set high at 1,200 per 450 g seed packet. It hiked the market price of the seeds and state governments started bringing in price control regimes. Andhra Pradesh was the first to set the trait fee at 150 in 2006-07, followed by Maharashtra and Gujarat. This non-uniformity in seed rates across states made the Union government step in. Invoking the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare set the trait fee at 49 and the retail price for a 450 g seed packet at 740 in March 2015.