CLCV major threat to Pakistan’s cotton crop: SBP

KARACHI: Cotton Leaf Curl Virus (CLCV) is a major threat to Pakistan’s cotton crop along with other sucking pests, as no cotton variety is available resistant against these diseases.

“Studies on Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton have acknowledged that farmers in Pakistan are not making the most of Bt cotton because the Bt varieties were developed by various private sector plant breeders by transferring Bt trait to locally developed cotton varieties and these varieties are distributed without a formal regulatory framework which raises several concerns about seed quality” the State Bank of Pakistan said in its recent report.

Unavailability of resistant cotton variety is major reason of low cotton yield and despite introduction of (Bt) cotton. CLCV is still a major threat to cotton crop along with meal -bug, jassid and white-fly as currently no resistant cotton variety is available against these diseases.

“There is also no resistance management plan and farmers are encouraged to maintain a refuge area with conventional cotton varieties alongside Bt cotton crop so that resistance in pests may not rekindle over a period of time”, the report said.

The SBP said that controlling these pests is important since cotton yields in Pakistan are very low compared to other countries like China, Brazil and Turkey, despite being fourth largest cotton producer in the world.

Although, higher intensity of insects and pests attacks and poor quality of seeds are the key reasons for low yields, it can be improved with introduction of pest resistive seeds, which likely to have substantial impact on cotton production.

The use of Bt cotton has an immediate bearing on farmers as it reduces expense on pesticides and crops gain resistance against the incidence of boll worm, but seeds are costlier and require more water and urea.

Bt cotton has been developed through the transfer of a gene, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), from a soil bacterium. This gene enhances crop resistance against three boll worms, spotted, pink, and American boll worm. The government of Pakistan introduced genetically modified (GM) cotton seeds from 2010 kharif season. Accordingly, certified seeds for 10 varieties of Bt cotton and one hybrid variety were released.

Although the work on developing GM seeds started in 1997, delays in commercial use of certified GM seeds resulted in unregulated adoption of different varieties of Bt cotton as early as the year 2000, the SBP report said.