Cotton Belt

Pests and Insecticides. The most destmctive pests of the cotton plant are the boU weevil and the boUworm/budworm complex. They are serious threats to the cotton industry in countries around the world. The boU weevil migrated from Mexico around 1892 and spread over the entire cotton belt within 30 years. The domestic cotton crop lost to the weevil is worth 200 million a year. In addition, about 75 million a year is spent for pesticides to control this destmctive pest (8). Unfortunately, some insecticides used to control the weevil kill many beneficial insects. Among the undesired casualties are insects that help to control the boUworm and the tobacco budworm, pests that cause another 200 million loss in cotton. 

Some fungi are found especially in fiber from certain parts of the U.S. Cotton Belt (Table I). This geographical localization appears in certain cases to be related to physiological properties of the fungi involved. Thus, Colletotrichum gossypii is a fungus which requires liquid moisture for the dispersal of its spores it is limited to fiber from the more humid eastern and mid-south parts of the Cotton Belt (J ). It causes a plant... 

The Carolina wren is primarily an insectivorous bird (94% of diet). It is nonmi-gratory and common in the cotton belt area of the southeastern United States. This species has been frequently observed foraging in or near cotton fields. Total daily intake of the hypothetical pesticide was estimated using the equation... 

Harner, T., Bidleman, T., Jantunen, L.M.M., Mackey, D., 2001. Soil-air exchange model of persistent pesticides in the United States cotton belt. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 20, 1612-1621. 

At 10 million strong, weU over one third of the world s cotton farmers live and work in India . The country s vast cotton belt covers much of its western side, reaching as far south as Tamil Nadu, and stretching upwards almost as far as the Himalayas. Key production zones are located in the north (Punjab, Haryana, northern Rajasthan, and part of Uttar Pradesh), the centre (Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra) and the south (Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka) . 

Cotton is one of the crops most heavily reliant upon insecticide use. Although Bt cotton has been introduced in some areas, insecticide sprays remain as important components of cotton pest management programs. In some areas of the cotton belt, the majority of applications are made by aircraft. Issues which have been of regulatory concern in recent years include pest resistance associated with the frequent sprays, beneficial insect effects, worker exposure, and spray drift impacts on surfrice water quality. Products currently in use include organophosphates such as azinphos-methyl, methyl parathion, acephate, and disulfoton, pyrethroids such as lambda-cyhalodirin and carbamates such as methomyl. 

The initial laboratory reports of tests on the cotton insects were promising and showed reduction of feeding of the boll weevil, boll-worm, and leafworm. Unfortunately, the compound did not perform well in the field. The general picture throughout the cotton belt seemed to be that the early season control under low population pressure was satisfactory, but under heavy pressure from increasing population, the compound was not effective. 

Seed Germination. Across the American cotton belt, cotton germinates under environmental stresses such as low soil temperature, moisture deficit or excess, oxygen deficits, and mineral extremes. Seed treatments to increase tolerance to early season stresses would be very beneficial. When large scale replanting depletes the best seed, lower quality seed must be used. So any treatment which would improve the performance of such seed, even under favorable environmental conditions, would be valuable. In the future, plant breeders may select breeding lines for... 

According to recent estimates, some 35 chemical pesticides are currently used to control various pests on cotton (1). There is considerable variation across the USA cotton belt in seasonal pesticide application rates, ranging from a high average of 7.4 pounds per harvested acre in Florida to a low of 0.3 in Oklahoma. Currently, methyl parathion (21.0%), azinphosmethyl (13.0%), various pyrethroids (8.0%), chlordimeform (7.4%), propargite (6.8%), and aldicarb (6.8%) account for 63% of all insecticides applied to cotton (1). 

Unfortunately, much of the cotton belt from Texas and parts of Arizona to the eastern seaboard is also infested by the boll weevil, which can cause major problems during early season. The boll weevil is an introduced pest unfettered by any significant natural enemies in this country, and it usually must be treated with chemical... 

So far, Texas and the mid-south are the only states in the U.S. cotton belt where formal resistance management programs have been implemented. These programs are described briefly below and in more detail by D. Bull and J. Menn in this volume. In Alabama, state researchers, private consultants and industry representatives have met to discuss the implementation of a program. 

ICI D. Ross, H. Feese Mobay D. E. Simonet, W. Mullins D. F. Clower, G. Certain) and M. Wall, J. B. Graves, J. R. Phillips and F. W. Plapp. The PEG-US committee wishes to express special appreciation to all the cooperators across the cotton belt for their dedicated hard work. 

Schulman, Bruce J. 1991. Prom Cotton Belt to Sunbelt Federal Policy, Economic Development, and the Transformation of the South, 1938—1980. New York Oxford University Press. 

Theoretically the application rate of the one racemate in alphamethrin, lamb-dacahalothrin and other so called high-cis-pyrethroids can be lowered by a factor of two in comparison to the cis mixtures, which are not enriched with active isomer, as was confirmed in laboratory and field tests. This reduction of application rate can hopefully be guaranteed also under the stringent conditions of a 12 to 14 hour sunshine day in the cotton belt around the world, in order to insure, that the great efforts made in technically applied stereochemistry have not been wasted. 

Bose, A. (2000). From population to pests in Punjab American bollworm and suicides in Cotton Belt. Economic and Political Weekly, 35, 3375-3378. 

Table 1. Average Bacterial Counts for Commercial Cotton Fiber Samples From the U.S. Cotton Belt in Four Crop Years ... 

Table 2. Average Counts for Total Bacteria and Gram-Negative Bacteria on Samples of Commercial Fiber from Four Major Regions of the U.S. Cotton Belt in the Crops of 1980, 1981, 1982, and 1984.

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