\nEconomic Times, India
\nBANGALORE: The University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) in Bangalore has applied for regulatory clearance to start field trials of a transgenic
\ncotton variety to control the bollworm pest.
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\nUAS officials said that if approved, field trials would take place in about 25 agro-climatic zones, 10 of them in Karnataka, with commercially availability of the genetically modified (GM) variety expected within two years. \u201cWe are keen to promote GM cotton, especially the extra-long staple variety called DCH-32, which was popular in Karnataka. We are keen that cotton growers in the state adopt this again,\u201d UAS research director BV Patil said.<\/p>\n
The cotton variety will be engineered to produce the insecticidal toxin from the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) soil bacterium.<\/p>\n
GM cotton was first introduced in India in 2002 and more than 150 varieties have been approved for use by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee. A recent report by the Indian arm of American agricultural biotechnology company Monsanto estimated that GM varieties comprised more than three-fourths of the 225 lakh acre under cotton during the summer kharif crop this year.<\/p>\n
Most of the existing transgenic cotton varieties available in the market contain the Cry1Ac gene insecticidal gene derived from Bacillus thuringiensis.<\/p>\n
UAS vice-chancellor PG Chengappa said the university is also eager to increase the output of seed material and not just focus on GM crops. \u201cSeed is the key in agriculture. We are keen to make available seeds to poor farmers at affordable prices. Our focus is more on food crops. We expect to increase seed output in 2014-09 50,000 quintals from 30,000 quintals in 2014-08,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Economic Times, India BANGALORE: The University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) in Bangalore has applied for regulatory clearance to start field trials of a transgenic cotton variety to control the bollworm pest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n