Dean Hoffman wrote:
Was Monsanto giving the seed away as some sort of promotion or trial?

My initial assumption was that they gave it away the first year in
order to gain a foothold in the market. I did a bit of research to
answer your question, and found I was wrong. According to an article
clipped from the Jakarta Post:

Branita Sandhini, a subsidiary of the multinational Monsanto Group,
said it would provide the seeds and fertilizer through a credit
scheme. Then the company said it would buy the farmers' cotton at a
good price, allowing them to pay off their debt to the company and
improve their income.

Ultimately, yield was far below Monsanto's promise, and they set a
lower than expected price for the product, trapping the farmers in
debt to Monsanto. Monsanto, of course, denies all these claims.

[Full article @ http://www.gene.ch/genet/2002/Jun/msg00008.html]