Debut for new GM cotton

Controlling weeds in cotton fields is an expensive manual process. There is barely any weed-killer in the market, which can selectively kill weeds sparing the crops.

Crop biotech major Monsanto and its Indian partner Mahyco, in association with agriculture universities and institutions, are conducting trials of a new variety of GM cotton in which Bollgard II has been integrated with Monsanto’s round up ready flex technology to give farmers better weed control in Bt cotton fields.

“Trials are going on in many sites in north, central and southern India. We hope to generate all data required for the regulatory approval by early 2011,” Gyanendra Shukla, director of Monsanto told Deccan Herald here.

The new GM cotton will allow farmers to spray a Monsanto’s proprietary weed-killer, Round up, most parts of the season.

The chemical kills weeds while sparing the GM cotton.

Way back in 2002, India allowed Bt cotton with a single gene (Bollgard I), which can protect cotton plants from boll-worm.

Four years later, a two-gene variety of Bt cotton (Bollgard II) that gave higher level of protection was introduced. 

GM cotton was a big success pushing India on top of the list of cotton-producing nations and adding significantly to export earning. The new variety could now provide another push.

“In many parts of the country, non-availability of labourers for weeding operations is necessitating the demand for alternate technologies like RR Flex, which gives better economic advantage than other weed control methods,” explained K R Kranthi, director of Central Institute of Cotton Research in Nagpur.

Trials are being carried out on two parallel tracks. While the company is conducting internal trials at Bhatinda, Hisar, Jalna, Baroda, Rangareddy and Haveri, four farm institutions, including CICR and University of Agriculture Sciences, Dharwad, are conducting bio-safety trials.

“The biosafety concerns from the GM protein in RR Flex is minimal. Moreover, the pesticide does not have persistent residual action as it breaks down in the soil quickly with minimum environmental effect,” Kranthi said.

Instead of the normal round up, Monsanto integrated Bollgard II with round up ready flex to increase the spraying window.

RR Flex Bollgard II is in use in the US, Columbia, Brazil and South Africa.

Kranthi said to get the maximum benefit, farmers have to cultivate RR Flex Bollgard II as sole-crop and grow pulses differently rather than as an inter-crop. Also, the GM crop management techniques have to be adhered to.