| Pusa scientists are evolving disease- and pest-resistant varieties of the crop
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| Cotton is one of those commercial crops for which research and development effort in productivity and quality improvement began way back in the 18th century. The first such attempt was by none other than the British East India Company which saw the opportunity of producing cotton in India to feed the British textile industry.
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| So it introduced the American cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) to India to improve the quality of the produce. Subsequently, Indian scientists took up this work and introduced, though much later, the sought-after Egyptian cotton (G barbadense). These, coupled with the short staple cottons grown locally as Bengal cotton (G arboreum) and other desi types lent diversity to the Indian cotton scenario.
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| As a result, India is among the few countries where all the major types of cotton — short-staple, medium-staple and long-staple — are grown and, that too, in three distinctly different agro-climatic zones. These are: the northern region, where cotton is grown with irrigation in alluvial (light) soils; the central region, where it is cultivated predominantly as a rain-fed crop on black soils; and the southern region, where it is grown largely as a rain-fed crop on black and red soils.
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| Interestingly, the distinction of evolving the world’s first cotton hybrid also goes to India — the Hybrid-4 was released for commercial cultivation in 1970. However, the subsequent history of cotton improvement has been a mixed one, marked by some significant achievements and also some pitfalls in facing the pest and disease menace.
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| The biggest problem that cotton breeders are still struggling to surmount is the advent of the dreaded American bollworm (Heliothis) as a major pest and the leaf curl virus as a formidable disease of cotton crop.
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| It is indeed these hazards that have led to a perceptible decline in cotton output, especially in the northern zone comprising Punjab, Rajasthan and western UP. Of course, some other factors, notably varying climatic conditions, too, contributed to it. This region, in fact, had the highest productivity till the mid-1990s, thanks to the availability of good varieties and cultivation of this crop in irrigated or partially-irrigated tracts.
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| Cotton breeders of the New Delhi-based Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI or Pusa Institute) have now taken up the task of combating the factors that have plagued this crop in the major northern belt.
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| Their strategy for this purpose keeps in view the ground reality that the increased incidence of bollworms has led to indiscriminate use of pesticides by farmers that, in turn, has developed insecticide-resistivity in the pests. The higher use of pesticides has also pushed the cost of cultivation and consequential indebtedness among the cotton growers.
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| This is also a major reason for frequent suicides by farmers, especially in the case of crop failure or price decline when they cannot recover their costs. This apart, the scientists have factored-in the needs of the cotton-ginning units and textile mills as well in their research and development strategy for cotton.
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| As a result, the cotton-breeding programme of the IARI now revolves around evolving varieties and hybrids with in-built resistance to pests and the leaf curl virus disease even while having high ginning outturn, better fibre quality and high oil content in the seeds. Fortunately, the Pusa scientists have managed to achieve considerable success in this endeavour.
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| They now have in their research farms plant material bearing cotton with a ginning outturn as high as 37 per cent, against the normal 33 to 34 per cent. They have also managed to improve the fibre strength to meet the stringent requirements of the modern textile industry. Some of the varieties being tested have a fibre strength in excess of 25 g/tex (at 3.2 mm gauge) — a level deemed desirable by many cotton mills.
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| To improve the economics of cotton cultivation, the IARI has developed varieties where the seeds have an oil content of 24 to 25 per cent, which is nearly 4 to 5 per cent higher than in the currently cultivated cotton types. Cottonseed oil has already attracted consumer attention as a health-friendly cooking medium. Moreover, some of the varieties in the pipeline have a much shorter growing period (150 to 155 days) and high yield potential of up to 20 to 25 quintals a hectare.
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| Another novel approach that the IARI is trying out in its bid to outwit the pests and diseases is to alter the growing period of the cotton crop. This is sought to be achieved by producing heat-tolerant cotton that can be grown during the summer months when the incidence of pests and diseases is, in any case, meagre.
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| The plants fabricated by the scientists with this end in view have been found to possess very good fibre quality though their yield levels are relatively low. These are being tested in the fields to ascertain the feasibility of releasing them for commercial cultivation. |
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