Page 48 - New Cloth Market December 2022 Digital Edition

Indian Scenario of Cotton Hybrid Technology,

Reseach Projects & Recommendations

Here we are presenting the extracts from the deliberations during 2-day programme on “Fifty
years of Cotton Hybrid Technology and ICAR- AICRP on Cotton Annual Group Meeting” orga-
nized by ICAR-All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Cotton, Coimbatore in collab-
oration with Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore and Indian Society for Cotton
Improvement (ISCI), Mumbai in April this year at Anna Auditorium, TNAU, Coimbatore. A galaxy of
cotton researchers and other stake holders from seed and textile industries participated in the
programme.
The world’s first commercial intra-hirsutum cotton Hybrid 4 (H4, or Sankar4) was developed by Dr
C.T. Patel at the Main Cotton Research Station, Surat (Gujrat) in 1970. The technology revolution-
ized cotton farming due to the genetic phenomena of HETEROSIS and breeding becoming pop-
ular as hybrid technology. The then paltry yields of 122 kg lint per ha in 1970-71 rose to 290 kg lint
per ha in 1992-93. The technology also led to a mini-employment boom in rainfed areas in the
80’s with 25 million people, mostly women joining the labor-intensive seed industry for pollination,
cotton picking to seed packing. It also gave rise to a strong Private Sector investment in seed
production and supply chain. Two years after the first intra-hirsutum hybrid, the world’s first inter-
species hybrid using G. hirsutum and G. barbenense was released from Dharwad, Karnataka
under the name ‘VARALAXMI’. With the release of these hybrids ‘Heterosis Breeding’ got full mo-
mentum not only in cotton but also in other crops and several hybrids in tetraploid and a few in
diploid cottons were subsequently released.
The future prospects of cotton must include the technology revolution like ICT based technolo-
gies with low input and maximum use efficiency and the gap existing between scientist and farm-
ers should to be addressed.
Key subjects of deliberations: the achievement of cotton cultivation by using GM based cotton
hybrids; the development of disruptive technologies for high density planting, single picking, suit-
able for mechanized harvest and Genomics assisted breeding; development of cotton breeding,
production and protection technologies for improving the cotton productivity; development of pre-
breeding lines for genetic divergence and the inclusion of “Product Profile” in breeding objectives
of cotton; innovative technologies for cotton yield improvement; introgression breeding as an
option to impart new traits in the existing germplasm [Linkage-drag reduces the yield, lint quality,
distributes several gene regulatory systems, and creates chromosomal abnormalities, hybrid run-
out and genome assortments. To break such linkage-drag, chromosomal segment introgression
lines (CSILs) concept has to be employed in introgression programs.]

The First Session titled "Special Lec- The Second Session titled "Cotton Coimbatore, Dr. R. Ramasami, Presi-
tures- Cotton hybrids: Historical Per- Hybrids: Challenges and Opportunities- dent, FSSI, Dr. R. H. Balasubraman-
spective" was Chaired by Dr. S. Geetha, Panel Discussion" consisted of a Pan- ya, Former Head, CBPD, ICAR-CIR-
Director, CPBG. TNAU, Coimbatore el Discussion and was chaired by Dr. COT, Mumbai, Mr. Pares Verma, Bio-
and Co- Chaired by Dr. M.V. Venugo- B. M. Khadi, Former Director of Re- seeds and Mr. Venkata Ramachan-
palan. Dr V. Kumar, Retd., Professor, search, UAS, Dharwad and co-chaired drappa, SIMA CRDA. In this session,
NAU, Surat presented a detailed chro- by Dr. Sujatha Saxena, Director, ICAR- Dr. A. Manivannan, Senior Scientist,
nology of “History of Hybrid technolo- CIRCOT, Mumbai and Dr. V.N. Wagh- ICAR CICR, RS, Coimbatore acted as
gy: Tribute to father of Hybrid cotton- mare, Head (Crop Improvement) rapporteur.
Dr. C.T. Patel. The second lecture on ICAR-CICR, Nagpur. The panelists
Following points emerged in the panel
Changes in fibre quality traits brought were Dr. Y.G. Prasad, Director, ICAR-
discussion:
by Hybrids was delivered by Dr. P.K. CICR, Nagpur, Dr. M.S. Kairon, Former
Madhyan, Principal Scientists, CIR- Director, ICAR- CICR, Nagpur, Dr. (Mrs) Dr. R. Ramasamy highlighted the tech-
COT, Mumbai. S. Geetha, Director, CPBG, TNAU, nology intervention such as hybrid

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