Scientific Principles behind BT Cotton
Scientific Principle 1:
Why is BT Cotton being used?
Cotton is used to create numerous numbers of textile products such as clothing, bed sheets and towels. Cotton can also be used to create fishing nets, tents and coffee filters.
Cotton is one of the most highly used naturally occurring fiber. The reason for the introduction of BT Cotton is the fact that Cotton is highly susceptible to pests and insects. Bollworms alone are responsible for an estimated 50-60% loss in potential cotton yield every year.
In India, where cotton is the leading commercial fiber crop, 55% of total insecticides are used to protect cotton plants resulting in pesticides and insecticide being responsible for 1/3rd of the cost of total cultivation costs. Repeated application of Insecticides can additionally lead to crop failures and high expenditures as a high level of resistance is required for cotton plants.Scribd (2009), Science Behind Bt Cotton (Online) Available at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/12747863/Science-Behind-the-Bt-Cotton (Accessed at 5th of May 2013
As Cotton is such a valuable resource and so highly susceptible to insects and pests, and the high cost of adding pesticides to the crops sometime outweighing the gains a relatively cheap, simple and effective pesticide was needed. With the genetic coding of BT transferred into cotton plants, cotton plants grown with the BT gene now are naturally resistant to some insects and pests without the need of additional man-made pesticides thus reducing the cost of growing the crops and improving harvest rates through better resistance rates and no overexposure to artificial chemicals.
Scientific Principle 2
How is BT Cotton Created?
BT Cotton is a GM or Genetically Modified Crop. It is one of the many biotechnology methods allowing a specific or desired trait/gene to be transferred from the subject into the plant.
In the case of BT Cotton the subject, in this case the bacterium Bacillus Thuringienisis has a gene that produces a chemical that kills of some basic insects. The gene that controls this trait is extracted from the bacterium and inserted in a crop of normal cotton plants which in turn gives them the gene that creates the BT chemical.
These plants are now BT Cotton plants. Through breeding between only BT Cotton plants more and more of the world’s supply of cotton plants are BT Cotton. Currently 80% of the world’s cotton plants are BT Cotton. Through Gene transplant Cotton plants have become the norm in todays world.
Why is BT Cotton being used?
Cotton is used to create numerous numbers of textile products such as clothing, bed sheets and towels. Cotton can also be used to create fishing nets, tents and coffee filters.
Cotton is one of the most highly used naturally occurring fiber. The reason for the introduction of BT Cotton is the fact that Cotton is highly susceptible to pests and insects. Bollworms alone are responsible for an estimated 50-60% loss in potential cotton yield every year.
In India, where cotton is the leading commercial fiber crop, 55% of total insecticides are used to protect cotton plants resulting in pesticides and insecticide being responsible for 1/3rd of the cost of total cultivation costs. Repeated application of Insecticides can additionally lead to crop failures and high expenditures as a high level of resistance is required for cotton plants.Scribd (2009), Science Behind Bt Cotton (Online) Available at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/12747863/Science-Behind-the-Bt-Cotton (Accessed at 5th of May 2013
As Cotton is such a valuable resource and so highly susceptible to insects and pests, and the high cost of adding pesticides to the crops sometime outweighing the gains a relatively cheap, simple and effective pesticide was needed. With the genetic coding of BT transferred into cotton plants, cotton plants grown with the BT gene now are naturally resistant to some insects and pests without the need of additional man-made pesticides thus reducing the cost of growing the crops and improving harvest rates through better resistance rates and no overexposure to artificial chemicals.
Scientific Principle 2
How is BT Cotton Created?
BT Cotton is a GM or Genetically Modified Crop. It is one of the many biotechnology methods allowing a specific or desired trait/gene to be transferred from the subject into the plant.
In the case of BT Cotton the subject, in this case the bacterium Bacillus Thuringienisis has a gene that produces a chemical that kills of some basic insects. The gene that controls this trait is extracted from the bacterium and inserted in a crop of normal cotton plants which in turn gives them the gene that creates the BT chemical.
These plants are now BT Cotton plants. Through breeding between only BT Cotton plants more and more of the world’s supply of cotton plants are BT Cotton. Currently 80% of the world’s cotton plants are BT Cotton. Through Gene transplant Cotton plants have become the norm in todays world.