Unauthorized HTBt Seed Spreads Across 24-30% of India’s Cotton Area
A field-based study estimates that unauthorized herbicide-tolerant Bt cotton occupied 24-30% of India’s cotton acreage in 2025-26, equivalent to about 2.62-2.9 million hectares. Seed industry organizations are pressing the government to approve the technology and bring an expanding informal seed market under regulatory oversight.
Unauthorized seed reaches commercial scale
Unauthorized herbicide-tolerant Bt cotton hybrids accounted for an estimated 24-30% of India’s cotton acreage in the 2025-26 season, according to a recent field-based study cited in reports on the country’s seed market. The estimate puts the planted area at roughly 2.62-2.9 million hectares, showing that cultivation has moved well beyond isolated trials or small pockets of non-compliance.
HTBt cotton combines Bt traits with tolerance to herbicides. The hybrids remain unauthorized in India, but their presence across close to a quarter or more of the national cotton area points to a large informal supply chain. Farmers are obtaining and planting seed despite the absence of formal approval, while licensed seed companies operate in a market where a substantial share of demand is being served outside the regulated system.
Industry calls for formal approval
Seed industry bodies have urged the Indian government to approve HTBt cotton, arguing that authorization could curb the illegal market, support cotton production and give farmers access to regulated seed. Rediff Money reported that the industry sees approval as a way to replace unauthorized cultivation with products subject to official oversight.
The scale reported by the field study strengthens that argument. A technology already planted on 2.62-2.9 million hectares cannot be treated as a marginal enforcement issue. For seed producers, the current situation means lost legitimate sales and limited control over product quality. For farmers, it creates uncertainty over seed identity, performance and accountability when a crop fails to deliver the expected result.
Regulatory delay sustains a shadow market
The spread of unauthorized hybrids reflects a gap between farmer demand and the formal approval process. The available reports do not provide figures for seed prices, yields, herbicide costs or enforcement actions, so the commercial benefit to growers cannot be quantified from the study summary alone. The acreage estimate nevertheless indicates that a significant group of farmers believes the technology addresses a practical production need.
Continued prohibition also divides India’s cotton seed market into regulated and informal segments. Approved companies must comply with official requirements, while unauthorized suppliers can sell without the same scrutiny. That imbalance matters not only for competition but also for stewardship: without a formal channel, authorities and manufacturers have less ability to monitor seed quality, advise growers or respond to misuse.
Decision will affect the wider cotton chain
The policy question now extends beyond whether individual farmers are planting prohibited seed. Cotton producers, seed developers, ginners, textile manufacturers and traders all depend on the volume and quality of the domestic crop. If HTBt cultivation influences production costs or output, its expansion across 24-30% of acreage may already be affecting the economics of the supply chain, even though the available study description does not quantify those effects.
Approval would not automatically eliminate unauthorized sales, but it could shift demand toward traceable products and allow the government to set conditions for their use. Maintaining the ban would leave regulators with the challenge of enforcing it across millions of hectares. The study’s central finding is therefore less about the arrival of a new technology than about the scale at which an unapproved one has already become embedded in Indian cotton farming.
