The main cotton research station of Navsari Agriculture University (NAU) at Surat expects to come out with its own indigenously developed seeds of high yielding and pest resistant Bt cotton by 2012.

NAU had entered an agreement with the Gujarat State Seeds Corporation Limited and the Lucknow-based National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summit-2005 after the Centre gave a go-ahead for its cultivation in 2002.

Under the agreement, the state government provided Rs 50 lakh for setting up a special laboratory for the purpose. In return, NBRI, after conducting research, provided NAU with insect and pest resistant cry1EC genes in December 2007 for research.

In the last two years, scientists at NAU have completed the ‘backcrossing’ process of introducing the foreign genes (cry1EC) into the local varieties of cotton and are all set for hybrid production of Bt cotton seeds next year.

However, seeds will not be immediately available for farmers as it requires to undergo elaborate multi-locational bio-safety tests and evaluation for at least two years. It is to ensure that the cry1EC genes don’t have adverse impact on animals and birds.

NAU’s research scientist and head of the main cotton research station Dr V Kumar said that after the seeds are found to be okay, these will be cleared by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests for cultivation.

The need to develop indigenous Bt cotton variety arose because of the high price for seeds charged by private companies, about 30 of them operating in Gujarat, accounting for 27 per cent of the total cotton cultivation and 40 per cent production in the country. As yield of Bt cotton crop and its quality is much better than hybrid cotton varieties, more than 90 per cent of the farmers in the state have switched over to cultivation of Bt cotton.

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