Hyderabad, April 20: Claiming that the current Bt cotton seed price control by states would hamper innovation in agriculture biotechnology, an association of biotechnology companies today sought a free market competitive environment.
“Since 2006, some state governments have been consistently controlling and reducing MRP of seeds with Bt cotton technologies, thereby exercising indirect control on technology fees,” K V Subbarao, Member, Executive Council of ABLE-SIGAB, told reporters here.
This indirect control is resulting in significant loss of farmer focused research investment and leading to industry value erosion. The actions of the governments has adversely impacted innovation and a competitive environment, he said.
The Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises – Special Interest Group on Agriculture Biotechnology (ABLE- SIGAB) is a body of leading biotech firms focused on research and development of innovative products.
–Agencies