Published on November 30. 2020 | Renata Tarragona, La Prensa
MEXICO CITY Reform Agency Nov 29, 2020.-Cotton cultivation in Mexico could disappear next year, given the prohibition of Semarnat to use transgenic seed, warned the National Committee on Cotton Product System.
The urgency for new genetically modified (GM) seeds of better quality for the next planting cycle led the agency to request a hearing from the Presidency to expose the problem. “To go back to planting conventional cotton, to begin with, there are no seeds and it is not economically profitable, we are talking then that we are in danger that our crop will disappear by not having the seeds (GM) in the short term, starting in 2021” said Raúl Treviño, president of the Committee.
The transgenic seeds improve characteristics of the fiber such as length and resistance, which allow it to be more competitive, he explained.
The vast majority of the more than 7,000 cotton producers, located mainly to the north, will have to migrate to other crops such as sorghum or corn.
“Cotton with Creole seed would not be profitable for us because it is very expensive to combat weeds, we use more chemicals and require more people, you could consider changing the crop, but that is not so simple, due to the characteristics of the land, “said Franz Klassen Guenter, a cotton producer from Chihuahua.
From producing one million 566 thousand bales in 2019, they will be reduced just over 500 thousand this year, which implies a loss of 3.7 billion pesos.
In August, Semarnat issued negative opinions to 19 requests to plant GM cotton, arguing risks due to the release into the environment of these crops.
