ICAR-SBI, Coimbatore licenses a novel crystal toxin to overcome pink bollworm resistance in cotton

16 July 2026, Coimbatore

The 98th Foundation Day of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research was celebrated today in New Delhi. Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and Rural Development, Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan, presented the roadmap for developed agriculture and prosperous farmers in line with the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.

In this event, ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore and Rasi Seeds (P) Ltd, Salem, a leading private cotton seed producer, exchanged an MoU for novel crystal toxin gene to impart resistance to Bollgard II resistant pink boll worm in cotton in the presence of Union Ministers, Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Shri Rajiv Ranjan Singh, Shri Ramnath Thakur, Shri Bhagirath Choudhary and Shri S.P. Singh Baghel. This is a high-value flagship technology developed through a public-private partnership.

The pink bollworm Pectinophora gossypiella is the most important cotton pest. For the past two decades, this pest has been successfully managed through the introduction of Bt transgenic cotton. The recent emergence and spread of PBW resistance in the past few years to Bt cotton pose a substantial threat to the sustainability of Bollgard II cotton cultivation in India. It’s now a national priority to develop resistant cotton hybrids to arrest this decline in the cotton-growing area and increase cotton production.

In this regard, Dr P. Govindaraj, Director, ICAR Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore said that Dr B. Singaravelu and team viz., G.S. Suresha, C. Appunu, J. Srikanth, K. Hari, C. Sankaranarayanan, P. Mahesh, R. Nirmala and M. Rajeshkumar has been carrying out extensive prospecting research work for over 15 years and successfully isolated economically promising novel Bacillus thurigiensis crystal toxin genes active against insect pests.

One of the novel crystal toxin gene discovered was found promising against pink bollworm resistant to Bollgard II. ICAR-SBI and Rasi Seeds (P) Ltd., Attur, Salem, one of the leading Bt cotton seed producer, came together with an objective to develop transgenic cotton hybrids resistant to Bollgard II resistant pink bollworm through a Public Private Partnership agreement and optimised the gene and successfully expressed in the plant system.

Dr Singaravelu, the lead scientist, added that Rasi Seeds (P) Ltd will continue to work on this gene and develop transgenic cotton hybrids by incorporating the ICAR SBI-discovered gene and the commercial seeds will be available probably around the year 2030.

(Source: ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore)