Lucknow :
Even as Punjab farmers rue the loss of nearly two-thirds of their cotton crop to whitefly, Lucknow-based National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) has developed a cotton variety that is resistant to the pest.
The technology has been tested on cotton plants at the institute’s polyhouse, where a gene derived from a vegetable – which the institute did not disclose – was found effective against whitefly. The ones injected with the ‘gene’ at the polyhouse are healthy and others are stunted and infested with whitefly.
“The ‘gene’ makes whitefly sterile thus controlling the reproduction of the pest,” said Dr PK Singh, principal investigator of the project, ‘Development of Resistance against Whitefly in Cotton’, at the institute. NBRI, a research lab of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has applied for a patent for the technology in eight countries.
Whitefly is a common pest which affects 30 plant varieties, including cotton, brinjal, papaya, tomato, okra and cucurbits, both in open fields and polyhouses. Though cotton is grown in nine states – Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, it’s the northern states where the pest affects the crop more.
Whitefly is a sap-sucking pest which affects plants in two ways: it sucks all the nutrients from leaves and excretes on the leaf’s surface thus causing fungal infection. Worse, the crop infested with whitefly may not wither completely but remains stunted. This gives farmers the hope that an overdose of fertilisers and pesticides would save the plant, but actually the yield from unhealthy plants is too little.
Once there is an outbreak it is difficult to check it. Spraying pesticides may not always help as the canopy formed by grown up plants may not let pesticide act on each and every leaf. Besides, the pest sticks to the base of the leaves and lays eggs there. “Treating each and every leaf can help but that’s a tough task,” said a scientist.
Once the pest spreads, it can destroy the crop in six to eight weeks. It was after testing genes from 250 plants that NBRI found the gene from a vegetable effective on cotton.
The protein formed by the gene was found safe and also easily digestible in the laboratory trials. The technology is now ready for field trials. “We want industrial partners to take the technology forward for field trials and efficacy test,” said director, NBRI, Dr CS Nautiyal.
The institute has done the trial on ‘coker’ variety of cotton which is not cultivable for low yield. “It needs to be crossed with other varieties and after six to eight crossings, we can transfer the gene to varieties which are commonly cultivated,” said Singh. ‘Coker’ is competent to take any gene.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Lucknow / by Neha Shukla, TNN / October 09th, 2015