MULTAN: Central Cotton Research Institute (CCRI) Multan scientists have developed four new high-yielding and virus-resistant Bt cotton varieties that can successfully fight adverse circumstances and are climate smart to some extent.
The varieties were now undergoing last year of the two-year national varietal trials that was mandatory before its final approval by the Punjab Seed Council (PSC) and had so far shown good results from 26 demonstration fields from across the cotton belt in Sindh and Punjab for their performance assessment, CCRI Multan spokesman Sajid Mahmood said in a statement on Monday.
Quoting CCRI Multan director Dr Zahid Mahmood, Sajid said, the seed of these varieties would be available from Dec 15, 2020 for sowing for next cotton season, 2021-22 at the official price of Rs250 per kilogram.
All these varieties including CIM-343, CIM-775, CIM-789, and CIM-511 can survive humid weather conditions to avoid fruit shedding, was climate smart to the extent it can survive excess temperatures, survive water shortage, less prone to pest attack especially white fly, virus-resistant, and cost of production was lower as it needed less number of sprays.
Sajid said, white fly that is the carrier of Cotton Leraf Curl Virus, mostly attack plants with wide leaf, however, the new varieties have Okra-like smaller leaf, to lower the incidence of white fly.
Moreover, all these varieties were suitable for cultivation across the cotton belt stretching from Punjab to Sindh. Dr. Zahid Mahmood termed it a good news for farmers and declared it to be the best cotton production technology that can fight and survive adverse circumstances. He invited farmers to visit CCRI Multan themselves to witness the effort of the scientists and the results.
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