Riding on the success of Bt cotton, agriculture biotechnology has
emerged as one of the fastest growing biotech industries in India in recent
years, a latest report of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has said.
"It is the third largest contributor among various biotech sectors
with total revenues of more than 229 million dollars in 2006-07 fiscal,
registering a growth of 55 percent," the report said.

Export revenue from agriculture biotechnology has grown to 11.6
million dollars in 2006-07 from around 8 million dollars in the previous
year, it added.

The report, titled 'India Biotechnology' and prepared by Santosh Kumar
Singh, claimed Bt cotton coverage has surged over the past five years to
cover 70 percent of total cotton area in 2007.

However, according to data available with the Agriculture Ministry,
the Bt cotton acreage stood at 24.37 lakh hectares, out of a total of 72.28
lakh hectares covered under cotton till the week ended July 20 in the
on-going kharif season.

The USDA report said the continuing legal issues pertaining to the
pricing of Bt cotton seed are likely to be detrimental to technology
transfer and foreign direct investment in India's biotechnology sector.


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