BIOSAFETY AND RISK ASSESSMENT OF TRANSGENIC COTTON AGAINST NONTARGET SUCKING INSECT’S COMMUNITIES

Transgenic crops were developed to show the resistance to major insect pests of the crops.Transgenic crops are more beneficial for ecosystem due to less pesticide sprays in the field. But all transgenic crops before commercialization are required to be tested for non-target effects. Transgenic cotton was developed to show the resistance against boll worms. Like other transgenic crops, there are also several benefits associated with Bt cotton such as less pesticide spray, higher yields, delayed genetic resistance in insects. But some issues regarding non-target effects on insects or predators are of major concern in Bt cotton. Sucking insect pests communities were having higher densities in Bt cotton fields in different experiments. While in other cases less densities of sucking insects was observed in Bt cotton as compared to control. Insects like thrips, whiteflies and aphids were found to be affected by the Bt cotton. Not much work has been carried out at molecular level to understand the non- target effects of Bt cotton against sucking insects pests. The pathways of Bt cotton in non- target insects is not clear either its affecting the population of insects and their predators upto third trophic level. As a conclusion it can be affirmed that if Bt cotton is not affecting the non- target insects and their communities then its impact on environment is less than pesticide spray residues which were conventionally used to kill the insects pests complex in cotton. If Bt cotton suppressing the non-target sucking insects population in the field could be an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategy. So transgenic cotton is much better than the conventional cotton hybrids.