PAU ready with Bt cotton, to go for trial on 3,000 acres

For current kharif season, the university has started distributing 400gm seed packets of the new variety, PAU Bt1, among farmers free of cost

CHANDIGARH : A Bt cotton variety developed by the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) is ready for trials. It took the university ten years to develop the variety with resistance against bollworm and it hopes to get better results than the prevailing Bt varieties.

The new genetically modified variety, PAU Bt 1, will go for trials over 3,000 acres in the current kharif season and the university has started distributing seed packets of 400gm each free of cost, asking cotton growers to sow it over one kanal (one-eighth of an acre).

The cost of three kg of seeds of prevailing Bt varieties for one acre is Rs 1,600, which is a major cost factor for farmers. Cotton is grown over 10 lakh acres in nine districts of state’s Malwa belt, namely Bathinda, Mansa, Fazilka, Abohar, Muktsar, Barnala, Sangrur, Faridkot and Moga.

“I am very positive about our variety and hope it would give best results. Besides, it being resistant to common pest, the farmers don’t have to buy the seeds every season. They could select good plants for producing seeds for the next season. It’s economically beneficial for farmers,” said PAU vice-chancellor BS Dhillon.

The new variety is considered a landmark achievement of the PAU, which has been criticised

by the farmers and farm unions for allegedly not undertaking research for newer varieties.

“It’s an achievement for PAU, especially being a public sector body,” said Dhillon. The commonly used varieties in the past were developed by multinational companies.

The PAU Bt1 seed was approved last year for northern

states of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan by a committee of department of agriculture and farmers welfare, Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), New Delhi. “On the basis of research experiments conducted so far in the three states, the average yield of PAU Bt1 is more or at par with most of the Bt cotton varieties commonly grown,” Dhillon said. The VC, who remained closely associated with the research of the new variety, said it exhibited superior fibre quality with lint percentage of more than 40%. “We are working on more Bt cotton varieties,” he said. The PAU Bt1 variety has better tolerance for cotton leaf curl disease as compared to most hybrid varieties cultivated in the region, he added. Speaking on the yield of the new variety, director, research (cotton), PAU, Paramjit Singh told HT that it has touched 11 quintals per acre whereas the commonly grown varieties in last season gave at least 8 quintals. “Farmers are enthusiastic about our variety,” he said. Cotton is sown in north India from April 1 to May 15.

For separation of seed from lint, PAU is creating a ginning facility at its research station in Bathinda where farmers can avail it and get the seed for next year’s sowing.

To produce better quality seed for next year, farmers are being advised not to grow the PAU variety within a distance of 50m from other Bt variety. “The best method for isolation is to grow desi cotton adjoining the Bt variety. Desi cotton seed is available with PAU,” Sandhu said.

PAU has produced 30 quintals of seeds of the new variety. Of these, they have kept 16 quintals for more in-house trials and 14 quintals is being distributed among the farmers.