03.01.2007 | permalink
India’s cotton output is likely to notch a record 25 million bales in the crop year to September 2007, with growing use of genetically modified cotton, industry officials said on Thursday. Last season, the output was 24.4 million bales, which was also a record crop. Industry officials said though the area under cotton cultivation was virtually the same in the last two years at 8.9 million hectares, farmers were able to reap bumper harvests with the use of the new variety of cotton. Out of 8.9 million hectares, about 30 percent of the area was under bacillus thuringiensis or Bt Cotton, they said.