Monsanto threatens to exit India if govt imposes cuts on GM royalties

[NickB79]

33. If Monsanto left the Indian market, Indian biotech companies would step up to sell their own GM seed

The news story in the OP isn't about a GM vs. non-GM battle in India; it is about royalty disputes between several different seed companies, international and domestic, that ALL produce GM seed for Indian farmers. The biotech industry is growing rapidly in India, and domestically-produced GM seed is a major growth market there.

For example, domestically produced Bt cotton: https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2016/02/24/indian-researchers-developing-new-insect-resistant-gmo-cotton-varieties/

Domestically produced GM mustard seed: https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/11/05/gmo-mustard-developed-india-cheaper-higher-yields-activists-claim-causes-sterility/

Domestically produced Bt eggplant: https://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/04/27/as-success-grows-for-bangladeshs-bt-brinjal-eggplant-mae-won-ho-renews-gmo-disinformation-campaign/

That is what makes this thread is amusing to me. Are all the posters here really convinced that Indian farmers would just go back to organic, heirloom seed stock once Monsanto is gone? Forgo herbicides and pesticides they've grown to rely upon for higher yields?

At best, they'd go back to non-GM, hybrid seed stock. And those high-yielding hybrids are patented and cannot be saved year after year, just like GM crops.