Source: Council for Biotechnology Information

New Bt cotton variety offers environmentally friendly crop protection.

More farmers than ever are expected to begin growing biotech cotton in Australia with the anticipated lifting of the limit on biotech cotton plantings and the recent introduction of a more effective second generation variety.

According to a report from Agrifood Awareness Australia, biotech cotton plantings could rise to 50 percent of all plantings in the 2004–05 growing season — 20 percent higher than current levels.¹ Some experts believe adoption rates could eventually reach 80 percent.²

The Australian government had capped biotech cotton plantings at 30 percent of total cotton area out of concern that pests could develop resistance to the first generation of Bt cotton, which is enhanced with a naturally occurring soil microbe (Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt) that wards off insect pests.

But the cap is expected to be lifted on the new variety, which is enhanced with two Bt genes that provide longer and more durable protection from a wider variety of insects. ³

Researchers say the cap can be lifted because it's unlikely that pests would develop a resistance to the two types of Bt genes in the improved variety. In addition, farmers are required to plant non-biotech, unsprayed cotton (or other plants) refuges near their biotech cotton fields to enable a wide variety of insects to thrive and breed, which reduces the chance that a resistant variety could develop. ⁴

"With conventional cotton and integrated pest-management strategies you can make incremental improvements and gradually reduce pesticide use," Gary Fitt, director of entomology for the Australia-based Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), told The Canberra Times. "But Bt cotton was essentially a quantum leap forward." ⁵

Since cotton was first introduced in Australia in the 1960s, controlling pests such as Australian budworm and bollworm has been a battle, which pests usually won in the early years.⁶

But the introduction of the first biotech cotton varieties in 1996 has given farmers an environmentally friendly upper hand to control pests, leading to an increase in cotton production.

While Australia is still not among the world's top 10 cotton producers (led by India, the United States, China and Pakistan), it is now the largest cotton producer in the Southern Hemisphere and the world's third largest cotton exporter. ⁷

Ninety percent of its crop is exported — primarily to Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and other nearby Asian countries — for making clothes and other goods. The industry is valued $1.7 billion per year. ⁸

There are approximately 1,700 cotton farmers in the primary growing regions of New South Wales and Queensland. In the 2001–02 season, Australia grew 998,300 acres of cotton, with the highest lint yield in the world of 1,479 pounds per acre, for a total production of 607,690 tons.⁹

Farmers and researchers say the real benefit with Bt cotton is the improved way it controls insect pests — reducing pesticide use and saving time because fewer applications are required.

"For the Australian cotton industry, it's been an extreme benefit because it's allowed us to very much reduce our conventional pesticide use, by well in excess of 50 percent, and that trend continues," Peter Corish, National Farmers Federation president, told Channel NewsAsia.   

That has led to the rapid adoption of biotech cotton. According to the most recent figures from the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), the area of Bt cotton in Australia increased from 74,000 acres in 1996–97 to 407,000 acres in 2000–01 — when the 30 percent cap was reached — and remained steady through 2002. 

ISAAA said Australian biotech cotton farmers saved $1.20 per acre on pest-management costs in 1998–99 and $11 per acre in 1999–00. Costs vary from year to year depending on insect infestation levels. ¹⁰

The savings and the reduction in pesticide use is expected to be even greater with the new variety of Bt cotton, which is replacing the first generation that is being phased out of the marketplace.

"Three years of field trials show that the new Bt cotton is even better than the original, reducing pesticide use by up to 75 percent compared with conventional cotton," said Greg Constable, a CSIRO cotton breeder. "Furthermore, cotton fiber yield and quality in Bt cotton varieties are equivalent to that in conventional cotton varieties." ¹¹

For more information

Bt Cotton Australia Case Study — International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA)
Bollgard II - The New Generation in GM Cotton — Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organization
Bt Cotton Creates Three Times the Earnings for Indian Farmer — Council for Biotechnology Information

Footnotes

¹ Agrifood Awareness Australia, Biotech Bulletin 9, GM Cotton Adoption, August 2004, p. 5,
<www.afaa.com.au/biotechpdf/09_2004_GM_Cotton_Adoption.pdf>

² "Bt Cotton Australia Case Study," International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, p. 3,<www.isaaa.org/kc/Global%20Status/crop/gmcotton/casestudy/australia.htm>.

³ Agrifood Awareness Australia, Biotech Bulletin 9, GM Cotton Adoption, August 2004, p. 5,
<www.afaa.com.au/biotechpdf/09_2004_GM_Cotton_Adoption.pdf>

⁴ Agrifood Awareness Australia, Biotech Bulletin 9, GM Cotton Adoption, August 2004, p. 5,
<www.afaa.com.au/biotechpdf/09_2004_GM_Cotton_Adoption.pdf>

⁵ "Cotton Belts Pests Into Split Views," Canberra Times, July 15, 2004,
<www.agbios.com/main.php?action=ShowNewsItem&id=5691>.

⁶ "Cotton Belts Pests into Split Views," Canberra Times, July 15, 2004,
<www.agbios.com/main.php?action=ShowNewsItem&id=5691>.

⁷ Agrifood Awareness Australia, Biotech Bulletin 9, GM Cotton Adoption, August 2004, p. 5,
<www.afaa.com.au/biotechpdf/09_2004_GM_Cotton_Adoption.pdf>

⁸ Agrifood Awareness Australia, Biotech Bulletin 9, GM Cotton Adoption, August 2004, p. 5.
<www.afaa.com.au/biotechpdf/09_2004_GM_Cotton_Adoption.pdf>

⁹ Bt Cotton Australia Case Study, International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications,<www.isaaa.org/kc/Global%20Status/crop/gmcotton/casestudy/australia.htm>.

¹⁰ Bt Cotton Australia Case Study, International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications,<www.isaaa.org/kc/Global%20Status/crop/gmcotton/casestudy/australia.htm>.

¹¹ Wright, Shane, "GM Cotton May Cut Pesticides," The Australian, July 31, 2003, <www.checkbiotech.org/root/sindex.cfm?fuseaction=newsletter&topic_id=2&subtopic_id=9&doc_id=5829>. 

Copyright © 2004 Council for Biotechnology Information.
Reprinted with permission.