Cotton variety which needs only 100 days to mature
A SCIENTIST from the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR) developed shortest-duration cotton variety in the world. Requiring only 100-120 days for maturity, the new variety could emerge as the solution to the problems of dryland cotton farmers in regions like Vidarbha and Telangana.
Developed by Santosh H B from the crop improvement department of CICR, the variety has been tentatively named “Yugank”, after the son of Dharwad cotton scientist S SPatil, who provided the original material — Patil’s son died in a mishap last year. It will be available in both Bt and non-Bt forms. “Another advantage of shorter-duration cotton is that the fibre quality is better. The longer the duration, the weaker the fibre,” said Santosh. The variety has proved to be resistant to sucking and other pests and has a large boll size too.
These plants grow without water during the crucial time of flowering and fruiting, suffering weak uptake of nutrients due to lack of water. Why this variety will be the one that we need for our dryland farmers is because it fits into the monsoon period, “One plant gives up to 20 bolls, which is way below the average hybrid yield of 60-70 bolls per plant. But if used in high-density plantation system, the number of these plants is at least six times higher. So the new variety will give higher yields within a short time period.