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ABSTRACT

World’s first GENETICALLY MODIFIED crop in general and food crop were “Tobacco” and “Tomato” released in the year 1983 and 1994 respectively. In India the first GENETICALLY MODIFIED crop permitted for commercial cultivation was “Bt cotton”, Due to which increase in the yield was reported around 82% in the year 2011 by International Cotton Advisory Committee( ICAC). From only four hybrids in the year 2004 to 522 hybrids in 2009 it only shows the success of Bt cotton in India. Bt cotton has boomed the overall cotton production of the country over the two decades.  

Key words: Bacillus thuringenesis, Genetically modified crops, Bt. Cotton, Genetic engineering, Bollworm, Cry proteins

Source: TNAU AGRI TECH PORTAL Bio-Technology

Bt cotton contains Bt toxins which are insecticidal proteins in nature derived from soil bacteria Bacillus thuringenesis. According to Dr. K.R Kranthi Bt cotton is resistant to American bollworm, Pink bollworm and Spotted bollworm. Bt cotton produces some Crystal proteins that protect plants from certain insect pests belonging to the insect order Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera and Diptera. Generally, Bt cotton contains Cry1Ac, Cry2Ab, Cry1C, Cry1F proteins when an insect feeds on the plants they ingest these toxins which get multiplied in the high pH of the insect’s midgut which leads to the death of the insect (Kranthi, 2012).  

Before the introduction of Bt cotton in India, the highest expenses were to control the pest in cotton and the amount of pesticides after the introduction was reduced to one-third. The yield was 80% despite the heavy pest infestation after the introduction of Bt Cotton (Qaim, 2003). Initially, single-gene Bt cotton was introduced later on multiple gene Bt cotton was introduced in the country. In 2009 multiple gene Bt cotton occupied more area 57% than single-gene Bt cotton 43% (Choudhary and Gaur 2010). Two gene Bt cotton approved in 2006 gave additional protection against Spodoptera  (Srivastava et al., 2016). Only four Bt cotton hybrids were approved for commercial cultivation in 2004, 20 in 2005, 62 in 2006, 131 in 2007, 274 in 2008 and a total of 522 Bt cotton hybrids were approved of planting in the year 2009 (Choudhary and Gaur 2010).

In the year 2002 around 54000 farmers grew Bt cotton in around 50000 hectares in 2003 the area doubled to 100000 hectares, the area increased four times in 2004 and showed continuous growth year after year (Choudhary and Gaur 2010)  as below in figure 1.

Source:  International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications. (ISAAA).

 Comparative study of the production of Bt Cotton and Non-Bt Cotton:

The commercialization of Bt transgenic cotton in India has significantly increased cotton production from about 10 million bales in 2001-2002 to 34 million bales in 2009-2010 (Dhillon et al., 2011). In the year 2001-02 the cotton production of the country was 95.2 lakh bales which increased to 243 lakh bales in the year 2007-08. India’s production of cotton lint in 2002-03 was 2312 metric tonnes and in the year 2020­-21 was 6026 metric tonnes which show huge turnover in Indian cotton history (International Cotton Advisory Committee).

For comparison between the production of Cotton and Bt Cotton, the data of production before 2002 and after 2008 is taken as fig. 2 depicts the production of non-Bt Cotton in a year in lakh bales from 1950-2001 and fig. 3 depicts the production of Bt Cotton in a year in lakh bales from 2009-2019.

As from fig.2 and fig.3 the huge difference between the production of non-Bt Cotton and Bt cotton can be seen. As it is observable that the production of cotton was very low when Bt cotton was not introduced in India for commercial production and the production increased tremendously (fig. 3) after it’s introduction and continued to be high for further years.

Bt cotton had several advantages over non-Bt cotton crop as it led to reduction in insecticidal demands of the crop hence it simultaneously reduced the expenses on insecticides. It controlled bollworms efficiently reduced its infestation especially American bollworm and the quality of cotton fibre was seen to be improved.

Due to reduced amount of insecticides, it had less harmful effect on the environment. Bt cotton had a  disadvantage to the farmers as the seed cost were higher than non Bt cotton seeds and for the companies the labour demand reached quiet high for hybrid seed production and low germination due to less soil moisture.

 Summary:

The introduction of Bt cotton in India has been revolutionary idea in the history of cotton in India. The introduction has decreased environmental degradation, amount of insecticides, bollworms population, cost of production. Reduction of insecticide applications mainly during flowering has led to occurrence of some minor pest as tobacco caterpillar, mealy bugs, thrips, aphids, leafhoppers, green stink bugs, serpentine leaf minor (Dhillon, et al 2011). The continuous growth shows that India has a good opportunity and potential to become the world provider of cotton and help India become the capital of “WHITE GOLD”.

 

References

Choudhary, B. and Gaur, K. (2010). Bt Cotton in India: A Country Profile. ISAAA Series of Biotech Crop Profiles. ISAAA: Ithaca, NY. 1, 3, 4, 5.

Dhillon, M.K., G.T. Gujar and V. Kalia (2011). Impact of Bt cotton on insect biodiversity in cotton ecosystem in India. Pak. Entomol., 33(2): 161-165.

Kranthi,K.R. (2012). Director CICR, Nagpur, Bt cotton Questions and Answers 3, 11, 13, 26, 47, 50.

Srivastava, S.K., Kolady, D. (2016) Agricultural biotechnology and crop productivity: macro-level evidences on contribution of Bt cotton in India, Current Science, (110)3-10: 311-312

Qaim, M. (2003) Bt Cotton in India: Field Trials Results and Economic Projections, World Development, 31(12): 2115-2127.

 

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Bt Cotton in India Experience of Two Decades.pdf