Hearing about desi cotton arboreum for rainfed areas. Is desi cotton better than BT hybrid in dryland?
What is desi cotton and is it worth growing instead of BT (kapas)?
SShivaji More11mo ago · 325 views
3 Answers
🌾Farmer.in Krishi TeamExpert ✓10mo ago
Desi cotton (Gossypium arboreum and herbaceum) is the native Indian cotton, hardier and more tolerant of drought, sucking pests, and many diseases than hybrid BT cotton, and it is not attacked by pink bollworm in the same way. In harsh rainfed areas with poor irrigation, desi varieties can give more stable returns at lower input cost, since they need less spray and water. The trade off is generally shorter staple and sometimes lower peak yield than well managed irrigated BT. With rising pink bollworm trouble in BT, interest in desi cotton has grown for dryland belts. Choose a state recommended desi variety, and check local mandi demand and price for desi staple before deciding. Confirm suitable varieties with Dr PDKV Akola or your KVK.
BBhaurao Kale10mo ago
Before sowing a lot of desi, fix your buyer. In some markets the short staple desi lint sells at a discount or only a few ginners want it. I keep a part of my dryland area under desi for its low cost and reliability, but I confirmed a nearby buyer first so the cheaper cotton still found a market.
NNivrutti Wankhade9mo ago
On my light, drought prone field near Akola the desi cotton kept standing in a dry spell that wilted the BT hybrid badly. It needed hardly any sucking pest spray too. It will not beat a fully irrigated BG II plot in tonnage, but for low input rainfed land it was the safer bet for me.