M'shtra leads in BT cotton

Though Gujarat enjoys the numero uno position in cotton production in India, Maharashtra leads the show when it comes to sowing of approved hybrid Bt cotton.

As per the latest report of International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) on global biotech crops, Maharashtra is the largest Bt cotton growing state in the country followed by Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.

The report claims that Maharashtra brought 2.8 million hectares of land under Bt cotton cultivation in 2007 followed by Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat with 1.19 million hectares and 818,000 hectares respectively.

Interestingly, Maharashtra has been topping the list of largest Bt cotton sowing states in the country for the past four years.

"Not only that, Maharashtra contributed around 46 per cent of the total area brought under Bt cotton during 2007. In 2006, 1.8 million hectares of land in the state witnessed Bt cotton cultivation," says the ISAAA report, which was released on Monday worldwide.

ISAAA is an international not-for-profit organisation, and one of the most focused promoters of gene technologies in Asia

Of the total 9.4 million hectares of land under Bt cotton, 66 per cent or 6.2 million hectares were Bt cotton. A total of 131 Bt cotton hybrids were approved for planting in 2007 as compared with 62 in 2006, 20 in 2005 and only 4 in 2003.

The report also reveals that in the wake of increased Bt cotton sowing, the average yield of cotton in India, which had one of the lowest yields in the world, increased from 308 kg per hectare in 2001-02 to 520 kg per hectare in 2006-07.

ISAAA also estimates that the cotton production in the country will increase to 31 million bales in 2007-08 from 28 million bales in 2006-07. The report also points out that India has overtaken China in terms of sowing of biotech crop.

India ranks fifth on the list of top 10 countries sowing biotech crops with 6.2 million hectares under biotech crop, while China comes sixth with 2.6 million hectares.