Secondary pest attack may mar Indian Bt cotton success
02 Sep '06
1 min read
India is now focusing more on Bt Cotton but growers may have to incur huge losses due to secondary pest attacks which were suffered earlier by China, according to researchers of Cornell University.
This secondary pest is associated with much hyped Bt technology and it is not country specific, informed Shenghui Wang, an economist with the World Bank and one of the researchers with the US-based university.
This study undertaken to examine problems which may arouse in long run with Centre for Chinese Agricultural Policy and the Chinese Academy of Science.
Intensity of secondary pest attack in Bt cotton can vary from country to country, informed Pinstrup Andersen of Cornell University.
Andersen explained that problem faced by China need not to arise in India but Bt cotton growers can learn from it.
Bt technology was developed by the US biotech giant Monsanto and it is very efficient in controlling the primary pest.
China was the first country to have allowed large scale plantation of transgenic Bt cotton seeds in 1997.
marketing@alchempro.com
