Developing a Egyptian Cotton Variety for North Indian Conditions

Gossypium barbadense, the species of cotton characterised by extra long fibre, cannot be successfully grown in northern parts of India because of its sensitivity to day-length and night temperatures. Populations obtained by hybridising genetically diverse varieties of G. barbadense introduced from different parts of the world were scored and a number of plants in the segregating populations of these crosses were found to be very promising. Some single plants have given an yield of 74 gm. of seed cotton with a fibre length of 37.6 mm. and a maturity comparable to that of G. hirsutum varieties like H-14. These studies suggest that it may be possible to bring G. barbadense under commercial cultivation in northern India if we exploit a wide range of genetic variation.