28.10.2011 | permalink
The cotton revolution through Bacillus Thuringiensis, popularly known as Bt, has been losing its sheen gradually over the past five years and there has been a consistent decline in cotton yield. Even as the area under Bt has grown to 93 per cent of the total area under the cash crop, the overall yield is estimated to decline to a five-year low this cotton harvesting season that begins October 2011. According to a senior official of the Cotton Development and Research Association of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, the overall yield this year may be less that the last year’s level of 475 kg per ha, because of unfavourable climatic conditions in some of the northern and central states.