Insecticides and Biotech Varieties Protect Indian Cotton from Significant Losses International Pesticide Benefits Case Study No. 80, June 2013

India is the world’s second largest cotton producer and consumer, and number one exporter. Cotton is primarily grown by smallholder farmers [1]. The value of the cotton crop to these farmers is about $8 billion/year. Traditionally, the principal insect pests included species that suck sap from the plants (leafhoppers and planthoppers [jassids], mirids), and bollworms. Bolls fed upon by the sap-feeding pests are shed from the plant causing loss in yield. Bollworm larvae feed on cotton bolls. In many instances, the entire contents of the boll are consumed. Uncontrolled, the bollworm complex and sap-feeding pests can cause about a 50-60 % loss in cotton yield [2]. Increased cotton yields in India between 1965 and 1980 (+70%) were due principally to the use of chemical insecticides [3]. Traditionally, the bollworm complex was the target of most insecticide sprays owing to the direct damage to bolls. Beginning in the 1990s, cotton yield losses occurred despite these sprays because of widespread resistance to the insecticides in bollworm populations. The insecticide sprays did have the effect of controlling the sap-feeding pests. Without the sprays, sap-feeding pests could reduce the cotton yields by up to 22 % [4]