Abstract
Cotton has become arguably the most important economic crop in the world in terms of tonnage and value. World production of cotton in 2011 was 29.8 million tons—twice what it was in 1980 at 15.2 million tons. China is the top cotton producer, followed by India, the United States, and Pakistan, and those four countries produce more than 75 percent of the world’s supply. In 2012, the United States produced 4.1 million tons or 15 percent of the total, and was by far the top cotton exporter in the world, followed by India and Australia. China is usually a net importer of cotton. In some Asian countries, such as Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, cotton production is currently the mainstay of the entire economy and can account for up to 90 percent of the economic value of all exports.
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Notes
- 1.
See: National Cotton Council of America, 2013, www.cotton.org/.
- 2.
Ibid.
- 3.
Environmental Justice Foundation, The Deadly Chemicals in Cotton (London, UK: EJF in collaboration with Pesticide Action Network UK, 2007), ISBN no. 1-904523-10-2.
- 4.
K. R. Kranthi et al., “Insecticide Resistance in Five Major Insect Pests of Cotton in India,” Crop Protection 21 (2002): 449-60.
- 5.
United States Department of Agriculture, “Agricultural Chemical Usage—2010 Corn, Upland Cotton, and Fall Potatoes,” May 25, 2011, http://www.nass.usda.gov/Surveys/Guide_to_NASS_Surveys/Chemical_Use/index.asp#description.
- 6.
Anthonomus is a true beetle (coleoptera) and Helicoverpa and Heliothis are noctuid moths. The moths are in a subfamily, heliothinae, in which several important species had adapted to all widely used agrochemicals around the world as of 1998. See: A. R. McCaffery, “Resistance to Insecticides in Heliothine Lepidoptera: A Global View,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B 353 (1998): 1735–50.
- 7.
National Research Council (NRC), Ecologically Based Pest Management (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 1996).
- 8.
D. G. Botrell and P. L. Adkisson, “Cotton Insect Pest Management,” Annual Review of Entomology 22 (1977): 451-81.
- 9.
P. L. Adkisson and S. J. Nemec, “Comparative Effectiveness of Certain Insecticides for Killing Bollworms and Tobacco Budworms,” Texas Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 1048, 1966.
- 10.
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), “Cotton Pests and Diseases,” 2011, http://www.unctad.info/en/Infocomm/Agricultural_Products/Cotton/Crop/Cotton-pests-and-diseases/.
- 11.
N. G. Hairston, F. E. Smith, and L. B. Slobodkin, “Community Structure, Population Control and Competition,” American Naturalist 94 (1960): 421–25.
- 12.
Botrell and Adkisson.
- 13.
University of California, “UC IPM Pest Management Guidelines: Cotton,” Publication 3444, 2013, www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/selectnewpest.cotton.html.
- 14.
See, for example: W. K. Vencill et al., “Herbicide Resistance: Toward an Understanding of Resistance Development and the Impact of Herbicide-Resistant Crops,” Weed Science 60 (2012): 2–30; J. K. Norsworthy et al., “Reducing the Risks of Herbicide Resistance: Best Management Practices and Recommendations,” Weed Science 60 (2012): 31–62; University of California, “UC IPM”; National Research Council (NRC); Botrell and Adkisson.
- 15.
NRC.
- 16.
P. A. Matson et al., “Agricultural Intensification and Ecosystem Properties,” Science 277 (1997): 504-9.
- 17.
UNCTAD.
- 18.
Kranthi et al.
- 19.
USDA-NASS data retrieved from Mississippi State University, Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Entomology, and Plant Pathology, “Cotton Crop Loss Data,” 2013, www.entomology.msstate.edu/resources/cottoncrop.asp.
- 20.
Botrell and Adkisson.
- 21.
Office of the Gene Technology Regulator, “The Biology of Gossypium hirsutum L. and Gossypium barbadense L. (Cotton)” (Australian Government, Department of Health and Ageing, 2008), www.ogtr.gov.au/internet/ogtr/publishing.nsf/content/cotton-3/$FILE/biologycotton08.pdf.
- 22.
United States Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service, www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_Subject/index.php?sector=CROPS, 2014.
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© 2014 Andy Dyer
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Dyer, A. (2014). King Cotton vs. the Red Queen. In: Chasing the Red Queen. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-520-5_8
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