How Many Dreams Transgenic Cotton Gives to Cotton

Since the 1990s, cotton bollworms in the north of China have been devastated. In 1992 alone, direct economic losses caused by pests amounted to more than 10 billion yuan. This year, the United States cultivated transgenic insect-resistant cotton. Since then, US cotton has quickly entered the Chinese market. China's research on transgenic insect-resistant cotton started in 1990, and a large-scale trial in 1996, and it entered the promotion stage in 1999. Since then, the planting area has been expanding year by year. In 2002, the cumulative spread of domestic insect-resistant cotton reached 30 million mu in the country, and in 2003 it was close to 50 million mu. At present, China has cultivated 17 generations of genetically modified insect-resistant cotton varieties. The rapid rise of genetically modified cotton, the platform for the rise of genetically modified organisms, to a certain extent benefited from the support of national debt projects. In the past 10 years, through the implementation of the national debt project, China has strengthened the key opening laboratory of cotton genetic improvement of the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Cotton Improvement Center and sub-center and the National Cotton Variety Promotion Center, and the Ministry of Agriculture of the People’s Republic of China. The construction of quality supervision and inspection centers, etc., and the establishment of the National Cotton Engineering Center in Xinjiang, basically formed the cotton science and technology industry development system, and trained a group of science and technology industry-oriented talents to ensure the safety of China's cotton. In 1998, the Ministry of Agriculture established the “National Cotton Genetic Improvement Center” project. In 1999, the former State Development Planning Commission established the first high-tech industrialization project involving agriculture—the project of “Transplanting insect-resistant cotton seed industrialization demonstration project”, in 2001. The Ministry of Science and Technology has set up a project for the pilot construction and industrialization of transgenic insect-resistant cotton. Now, these key laboratories of the center and departments have become the knowledge platform and technology platform for the innovation of cotton genetics and breeding during China's “10th Five-Year Plan” period, forming an innovation system for cotton breeding covering the three major cotton regions in the country, providing cotton science and technology and industrial integration in China. Strong support. China's cotton production accounts for 25% of the world's total output. Cotton textiles export more than 400 billion U.S. dollars each year. This shows that China is not only a big producer of cotton, but also a big consumer country. The quality of cotton will determine the quality and export of textiles. However, the serious diseases and pests in China's traditional cotton varieties, and the low quality of cotton fiber make the development of the entire cotton textile industry chain subject to great international competition and challenges. This has led some high-quality cotton yarn manufacturers to import large quantities of foreign high-quality cotton each year, which has increased costs. The promotion of cotton varieties centered on transgenic technology precisely compensates for the disadvantages of traditional varieties and caters to consumer demand. Relevant experts believe that according to the increase of 10% in the proportion of high-quality textile yarns suitable for high-yield yarns, China’s cotton textile exports will increase by US$4.7 billion. While the good quality of GM cotton caters to the consumption needs of cotton textile companies, its high added value is also welcomed by cotton farmers. According to preliminary calculations, GM cotton can increase 7.5 kg of lint per acre, reduce the input of pesticides by 50 yuan, and reduce manual investment by 30 yuan. Moreover, because of its high quality and high price, it can also increase income by 40 yuan per mu. Based on the comprehensive calculation, the accumulative amount of GM cotton per mu can increase cotton farmers' income by 150 to 160 yuan. Since GM cotton can bring such benefits to the cotton spinning industry and cotton farmers, it is not surprising that it will rise rapidly. Looking at the drawbacks of GM cotton, China is the second country in the world with independent intellectual property rights and independently developed and developed a successful transgenic insect-resistant cotton. It has mastered the international advanced gene bombardment method and other genetic transformation methods. The cotton research institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences also created the pollen tube channel conversion technology and formed a large scale transgenic technology system. At present, China has reached an annual capacity of producing 4,000 transgenic cotton plants. It is expected that the scale of transformation can reach 8,000 to 10,000 strains in two years, so that the transgenic insect-resistant cotton will come out of the “laboratory” and be widely applied. On June 3, 2002, the Nanjing Institute of Environmental Science of the State Environmental Protection Administration announced a comprehensive report on the environmental impact of Bt insecticide-resistant cotton. The report shows that the transgenic cotton that was transferred to the cotton bollworm gene was effective in controlling pests and reducing the use of pesticides, but also brought about significant environmental impact. According to the report, in the GM cotton field, the number of parasitoids of Helicoverpa armigera is greatly reduced, and the diversity and even distribution of insect communities, pests, and sub-communities of natural enemies are lower than conventional cotton fields. The report shows that Bt insect resistant cotton has poor control effects on pests other than cotton bollworm, and certain pests are more serious than conventional cotton fields, and even rise as major pests that endanger the growth of cotton. In addition, indoor observations and field monitoring have shown that H. armigera produces antibodies against Bt-resistant cotton. After 8 to 10 years of continuous planting, the GM cotton may lose its insect resistance. GMOs contain foreign genes transferred from unrelated species. There is no doubt that when they are released into the natural environment, they will reproduce as ordinary creatures, transfer to other species or produce new varieties, and change the genetic resources in the natural world. This kind of change to natural genetic resources is hardly controlled by humans in the area where they were originally launched, and cannot be restored. At the same time, the foreign genes that have been screened by humans will make the new varieties superior to other native breeds and multiply, destroying the local biodiversity. According to information from Greenpeace, in September 2001, Mexico discovered that local maize varieties were “contaminated” with imported GM maize. As one of the most important food crop varieties in the world, Mexico has more than 300 kinds of wild and local corn varieties that may be threatened. While GM cotton brings economic benefits, like Mexico's corn, it will inevitably produce some negative effects, but the world cotton production is entering a new period of development, and transgenic insect-resistant cotton represents the development of cotton research and production in the future. In the direction, with the development of science and technology, it is believed that the negative effects of genetic modification will gradually decrease, and the cotton industry will also usher in a new development space.