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Premature release of BT cotton varieties led to failure in South India

Staff Correspondent

While Centre allowed trials of two-gene varieties, those released in South had one gene

CHANDIGARH : A consensus has emerged among top entomologists that the main cause of failure of the BT varieties of cotton in South India was "premature" release of these products of "half-baked technologies". While the Union Government has recently allowed the trials of varieties with two genes, those released in the southern States had just one gene.

The opinion was accepted at the First Congress on Insect Science organised recently by the Entomology Department of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in collaboration with the Indian Society for Advancement of Insect Science. The 160 experts, including some international specialists, also recommended the need for focus on recording insect-pests migratory patterns and favoured the need for setting up an advanced centre for research on insecticide application technology and pesticide residue monitoring.

Following the failure in South India, entomologists sounded a grave note that the scourge of the American Bollworm was there to stay, given its peculiar "learning" behaviour and adaptive abilities on a host of plants, particularly, flowering species. However the reasons for success of BT cotton in Punjab were different, leading to a record cotton production of 22 lakh bales.

The meeting recommended that "gene pyramiding" must form an important component of research methodologies and techniques. It favoured introduction of more than one gene in the BT varieties or hybrids to delay breakdown of plant resistance.While they accepted that the limiting factor in introducing new BT varieties was finance, the experts were unanimous that selection of plants with right genotypes and local cultivars was important for the introduction of BT genes to make them "adaptable to the local agro-climatic zones and vagaries of weather." The PAU was trying to procure BT Cry-1EC genes for its research on tomatoes, brinjal and cotton.

Among other key recommendations was the need to develop "molecular techniques" to detect presence of insect-pests in "bulk" food, fruit, flower, vegetable cargos, improve "quarantine" stations' upkeep and ensure "conservation of biodiversity".

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