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Thursday, March 28, 2024
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PAU to develop two Bt cotton varieties

LUDHIANA: Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) has been identified to develop two Bt cotton varieties, PAU Bt 2 and PAU Bt. It was decided in the Variety Identification Committee meeting held under the chairmanship of Dr AK Singh, Deputy Director General (Horticulture and Crop Science), ICAR.

Other institutes from Haryana and Rajasthan had also participated in the meeting.

For two years, these varieties were evaluated in five locations of North Zone under All India Coordinated Research Project on Cotton. On the basis of the evaluation, PAU recorded an average seed cotton yield of 2,905 kg/ha and 2,840 kg/ha, respectively against 2,409 kg/ha of non-Bt zonal check variety F 2228 with percentage seed cotton yield superiority of 20.6 % and 17.9 %, respectively against check F 2228.

Both new varieties have good ginning outturn, exhibited superior fibre properties, inbuilt resistance against bollworms, and are moderately resistant to cotton leaf curl disease, fungal foliar diseases and resistant to bacterial leaf blight.

The major attraction of the varieties is that farmers can produce the seed for next year on their own and will get rid of purchase of costly hybrid seed every year.

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