Studies on the Impact of Growing Transgenic Cotton on Soil Health in Major Bt cotton Growing areas of Tamil Nadu, India

Author: T. Sherene, R. Kavimani and Bharathi Kumar

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Abstract

There is a persistent environmental concern that transgenic Bt-crops have indirect undesirable effect to natural and agroecosystem function. We investigated the effect of Bt-cotton (with Cry 1 Ac gene) on soil biology in Bt cotton growing soils of Perambalur district, Tamil Nadu under rainfed scenario. Soil samples randomly from ten Bt cotton growing fields were selected in each of the taluks of Perambalur district of Tamil Nadu region, India, where Bt-cotton has been growing at least for ten continuous years and side by side non-Bt cotton grown soils were also collected to compare the extent of adverse effect of Bt toxin, if any. Samples were analyzed for various soil biological indicators like microbial population, microbial respiration, Microbial Biomass Carbon (MBC), Microbial Biomass Nitrogen (MBN), and soil Dehydrogenase (DHA) activities. The soil biological indicators like microbial population, soil respiration, DHA, MBC and MBN were found to be comparitively higher in Btgrown

Keywords

Soil health, Transgenic cotton, soil biological índices

Conclusion

This study has demonstrated that cultivation of transgenic Bt cotton expressing cry1Ac gene had no adverse effects on soil bio¬logical activities such as micro¬bial population, soil respiration, dehydrogenase activity, microbial biomass carbon, and microbial bio mass nitrogen. Based on the overall observations, growing Bt cotton was found to have a positive impact on soil biological activities. Our results suggest that cultivation of Bt cotton expressing cry1Ac gene may not pose ecological or environmental risk. Thus, the transgenic plants, either through the products of introduced genes and modified rhizosphere chemistry or through altered crop residue quality, have the potential to significantly change the essential ecosystem functions such as nutrient mineralization, carbon turnover and plant growth under long run. It needs continuous monitoring of Bt cotton grown soil environment for their biological indicators.

References

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How to cite this article

T. Sherene, R. Kavimani and Bharathi Kumar (2019). Studies on the impact of growing Transgenic cotton on Soil Health in major Bt cotton growing areas of Tamil Nadu, India. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 11(1): 18-23.