Farmer Suicides and Bt Cotton Nightmare Unfolding in India
Institute of Science In Society Report 06/01/10 ############################################## The largest wave of farmer suicides and ecological nightmare unfolding around Bt cotton Dr. Mae-Wan Ho exposes the “fudged” data and false claims of ‘successes’ that have perpetrated the humanitarian disaster The Bt cotton killing fields As the cotton growing season drew to a close in the state of Andhra Pradesh, farmer suicides once again became almost daily occurrences. Officially, the total number of suicides within a six-week period between July and August 2009 stood at 15, but opposition parties and farmers’ groups said the true total was more than 150 [1]. Opposition leader N. Chandrababu claimed in a speech that he had the names and addresses of 165 farmers who ended their lives because of the distress caused by the drought. By November, similar reports were coming from another cotton growing state Maharashtra. Farmers of Katpur village in Amravati district sow