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Insect Resistance to Insecticides and Bt Cotton in India

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Natural Resource Management: Ecological Perspectives

Abstract

Yield losses in cotton are often attributed, worldwide, to biotic factors, of which insect pests, categorized as sucking pests and bollworms, are dominant. Insecticides are the most potent tools used against them. Pest management was severely affected when bollworms developed resistance to commonly used insecticides. Transgenic Bt cotton Bollgard and Bollgard II were introduced in India in 2005 and 2006, respectively, to control lepidopteran pests. Cotton crop protection in India, supported by strategic research, made strides beginning in the late 1990s. From a less-rational, calendar-based schedule in the 1980s, today insecticide use is integrated with other components of pest management in a “windows” approach to ensure sustainability, and these programs are comparable with cotton crop protection programs across the world. This chapter briefly documents the advances made in the field of insecticide resistance, including Bt resistance. Stewardship of Bt cotton in India did not facilitate a delay in the development of resistance in target pests. Bt cotton, a promising tool in crop protection, stands threatened with the development of field-evolved resistance to both toxins, Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab, in Bollgard II, by the pink bollworm. In addition, sucking and emerging pests have been reported to limit yields of BGII cotton in specific locations. Dissemination of crop protection strategies is still inadequate. Cotton crop protection needs to be strengthened quickly through an effective network that includes stakeholders, exploiting recent technologies to ensure that rational strategies are disseminated and implemented in the right place and at the right time, for effective pest and crop management, before a powerful, expensive, and useful technology such as genetically modified (GM) cotton is rendered unsustainable.

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Abbreviations

$:

US dollar

BHC(HCH):

Hexachlorocyclohexane

Bollgard II:

Cotton contains two genes derived from the common soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis

Bt:

Bacillus thuringiensis

CICR:

Central Institute for Cotton Research, Nagpur, India

Cry1Ac:

Cry1Ac toxin is a crystal protein produced by the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) during sporulation. Cry1Ac is one of the delta endotoxins produced by this bacterium which acts as an insecticide

Cry2Ab:

Pesticidal crystal protein Cry2Ab

DDT:

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane

Dissemination:

Active spread of innovations/new practices to the target audience using planned strategies

g:

Gram

ha:

Hectare

HDPS:

High density planting system

IARI:

Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi

IPM:

Integrated pest management

IRM:

Insecticide resistance management

LC50 :

Lethal concentration 50 (LC50).

Mt.:

Metric tons

NPV:

Nuclear polyhedrosis virus

RIB:

Refuge in Bag, cotton hybrid seeds mixed with the Bt cotton seeds

Rs:

Indian Rupee: the official currency of the Republic of India

USA:

The United States of America

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Kranthi, S., R. Kranthi, K., Rodge, C., Chawla, S., Nehare, S. (2019). Insect Resistance to Insecticides and Bt Cotton in India. In: Peshin, R., Dhawan, A. (eds) Natural Resource Management: Ecological Perspectives . Sustainability in Plant and Crop Protection. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99768-1_11

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