Rain-fed Agriculture: Seizing the desi advantage through improved breeding

Even as Monsanto?s threat to ?reevaluate? its presence in India ? following a government move to slash royalty on the US life sciences giant?s proprietary Bt cotton technology ? has created uncertainty in the cotton trade, the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR) here sees this as an opportunity for revival of native desi varieties incorporating improved fibre characteristics.

Scientists in various state agricultural universities have developed eight new improved desi varieties under the CICR-spearheaded All India Coordinated Research Project on Cotton. These are claimed to not only be more resistant to drought, salinity, diseases and insect pests, compared to the ?American? cottons occupying much of the cotton area in the country today, but also produce fibre of good quality.
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