Thread: Andhra Pradesh will compensate cultivators of Bt cotton crops
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Old 19-03-2003, 07:08 PM
Larry Caldwell
 
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Default Andhra Pradesh will compensate cultivators of Bt cotton crops
(Gordon Couger) writes:

I know both farmers that from our land grip about the price but won't buy
anything but GM cotton seed. Both are planing substantial no till cotton
this year. Not only for the cost reductions but to stop erosion and build
organic matter in the soil. The farmer on my home place is very good on
legume rotations keeping about a third of the place in at any one time.

It sounds like your tenant is a good farmer. Take care of the land and
it will take care of you.

What kind of legumes does he plant? Up until they banned DDT, my dad
used to raise hairy vetch for seed (in the PNW). I always heard it was
used as a cover crop in the south, but never knew exactly how. After the
DDT ban, the germination dropped off too much to make it a viable crop.
It has an extended blossom period and needs a really persistent pesticide
to kill the fly that stings the blossom. It was a wonderful rotation
crop that put a lot of nitrogen and humus in the soil. The only way to
raise it now is by repeated spraying of insecticide throughout the
blossom phase, which lasts for weeks. It doesn't pay.

If they GM a strain of vetch with an insecticide that would kill the fly
larvae, it could return as a viable rotation crop.

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