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Content

• Introduction
• Suitable Climate Condition for Cotton
• Total Production and Distribution of Cotton Cultivation in India
• Initiatives
• Pink Boll Worm (PBW) Resistance against BT Cotton and Challenge to Sustenance of BT Cotton
• How was resistance developed by PBW: Key Factors
• Impact

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Introduction

Cotton is one of the principal commercial crops of India and it provides livelihood to about 6.0 million cotton farmers.

• India is the largest producer and consumer of Cotton in the world. Adoption of Bt Cotton in 2000s enabled significant increase in cotton production from 10 million bales in 2001-02 to 34.3 million bales in 2022-23.
• It is an indigenous crop which is sown as Kharif Crop in semi-arid region of the country. It takes 6-8 months to mature.

Suitable Climate Condition for Cotton

• Cotton is a crop of tropical and subtropical areas and requires uniformly high temperatures between 21 degrees and 30 degrees C. The growth is negatively impacted if the temperature falls below 20 degree C. Frost is harmful for the crop.
• The crop has modest water requirement (average annual rainfall of 50-100 cm) and can be grown in areas with lower rainfall with the help of irrigation.
• Good sunshine is a must at the time of flowering and moist weather or heavy rainfall at the time of ball opening and picking are detrimental to the crop.

Other requirements

• Cheap and skilled labor force at the time of picking of cotton. Normally the picking season is spread over a period of 3 month.

Traditionally, it is cultivated on the lava plateau of Deccan and therefore the soil here is called the Black Cotton soil.

In Tamil Nadu, it can be grown both in Kharif and Rabi season as there is no threat of frost which is dangerous for the cotton production.

Total Production and Distribution of Cotton Cultivation in India:

• India has the world’s highest area under cotton cultivation which accounts for around 6% of the net sown area. India produces 6 million tonnes of Cotton every year, which is about 23% of the world cotton.
• India also produces 51% of the total organic cotton production of the world, which demonstrates India’s effort towards sustainability.
• There are three major cotton producing regions in India:
  i. Southeast Punjab, Western Haryana, and Northern Rajasthan.

ii. Gujrat, Maharashtra and neighboring Southern Rajasthan 

iii. North Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Initiatives:

• Budget 2023-24:
  • To enhance productivity of extra-long staple cotton, we will adopt a cluster based and value chain approach through Public Private Partnerships (PPP).
    • This will mean collaboration between farmers, state and industry for input supplies, extension services, and market linkages.

Various types of cotton grown in India: Three broad types of cotton are generally recognized on the basis of length, strength, and structure of the fiber.

a. Long Staple Cotton

• Cotton with longest fiber (24 to 27 mm)
• Fine and shining quality, used for superior quality of clothes.
• About 50% of the cotton produced in the country is long stable type.

b. Medium Staple Cotton

• Length of the fiber (20 to 24 mm)

c. Short staple cotton

• Inferior cotton with less than 20 mm length. Used for making inferior cloth and fetches less price.

Conclusion

• Cotton cultivation, together with cotton textile industry employs millions of people in India and therefore can play a very important role in improving the employment situation in the country.

Pink Boll Worm (PBW) Resistance against BT Cotton and Challenge to Sustenance of BT Cotton

Background: Indian farmers have faced consistent loss of Bt Cotton crops due to pink bollworm attacks since the mid-2000s, when scientists found that the insect had became resistant to the genetically modified variety of cotton.

• About PBW:
  • PBW is a worm that destroys parts of the developing cotton fruit, such as the square (flower bud) and the boll (rounded sac of seeds with cotton fibres).
  • Adult worms are thin grey moths that lay eggs on buds, flowers, and bolls. The larvae hatch from the eggs and burrow into the bolls to feed on the seeds. It cuts through the lint and stains it in the process, resulting in a loss of quality
• Bt Cotton was encoded with Cry1Ac toxin which protected it from all three species of bollworms (American, spotted, and pink bollworm)
  • Later, Cry2Ab gene was also added in Bt Cotton to improve protection against the American Bollworm.
• But, in 2008, scientists in India found unusual survival of Pink bollworm in Amreli district of Gujarat, indicating of Pest’s resistant to Bt cotton.
• By 2014, it was clear that Pink Bollworm had become resistant to both Cry1Ac toxin as well as Cry2Ab toxin.
• PBW is more dangerous than American Bollworm as it feeds from inside the bolls and thus remains elusive in the initial stages and is seen in harvest stages when the damage is already done. As it feeds from inside, no amount of pesticide help control it.

How was resistance developed by PBW: Key Factors:

• Early Sowing and Late Sowing: The ideal time for sowing cotton is April 15 to May 15. But many farmers in the northern belt of Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab have started sowing from March end or the first week of April and extend it up to June end, which is an increase from 45 days to 80 days.
• The early sowing season coincide with the time the PBW comes out of hibernation or the diapause stage in the winter months. The pest survives in this stage between two cotton seeds or cotton crop residue.
• The cotton plants are at bud or flowering stage, during which the PBW searches for food and begins feeding on bolls during the larval stage, which continues for 14-17 days. It eventually starts laying eggs.
• The issue worsens for farmers who sow late. The process enables worms to access food for longer periods and increasing generations.
• The longer duration of cotton varieties in the south and central India, which lasted upto 150-160 days, helped the pest develop resistance to the genetically modified varieties.
• Not Planting other varieties against Advice: Farmers were repeatedly advised to plant indigenous, hybrid varieties of cotton alongside Bt to prevent developing resistant. “The crossbreeding of pests from different varieties of plants would have prevented developing tolerance for longer years”. But farmers haven’t followed the advice.

Cotton Crops across the North-Indian States, Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan are reporting a severe pink bollworm attack and even Bt-Cotton is falling prey to the pest it was created to resist. (Oct 2023)

Impact:

• Damage to crops: Damage in 2023, is the highest since 2001 – both according to government and farmers.
  • Note: Before 2001, the American bollworm created havoc and ruined lives of farmers.
• Difficult to find laborers: As laborers refuse to pick leftover crop as yield is too low
• Difficult to find buyers as traders refuse to buy citing poor quality.
• Farmer Suicide: In Sep 2023, Sri Ganganagar district saw first farmer suicide in over a decade. It was due to the fact that farmer had a lot of debt accumulated due to loss of cotton crop consecutively for 3 years.
• Farmers giving up cotton cultivation in the northern belt (for e.g. the production of cotton in
  Punjab has almost halved in the past decade).

Way Forward:

• Effective monitoring and timely adoption of a crop-window based integrated pest management (IPM) is the immediate solution.
• Scientists are also experimenting with a technology that has proven successful in the USA. This is called PBKnot or PB Rope L.
• It involves using a 20 cm polyethylene hollow rope that is impregnated with pheromone gossyplure – chemical emitted by female moths – to attract male moth. This confuse the male moth and prevent them from reaching the actual female moth. This thus disrupts the mating process and reproductive cycle.

Conclusion:

• While promoting Crop-Window Integrated Pest Management, the GoI also needs to promote PBKnot a biotechnology tool and implement it in all cotton-producing states.

Example Questions

• What are the key climatic requirements of Cotton cultivation. How is cultivation of cotton distributed geographically in the country? [10 marks, 150 words]