NAGPUR: A woman scientist at the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR) Vinita Gotmare has developed a cotton type which has the highest known fibre strength of American cotton in the country and also probably in the world.

The CICR cotton type has been obtained after many years of work by crossing wild sources of cotton with cultivated species. A few years down the line, after it becomes a variety and is crossed with other good cotton varieties, this cotton type can revolutionize the spinning and the textile industries. Cotton mills generally use cotton having fibre strength over 17g/Tex (unit used to measure fibre strength). Highest fibre strength is needed for high speed ginning machines in textile industry. The new cotton type has been tested for strength at Ginning Training Centre in city.

Excited by the results, CICR director Keshav Kranthi told TOI that the highest known strength of fibre in the known germ plasm - 10,000 at CICR, including 7600 exotic and 2800 desi - in the country was 26g/Tex. "The CICR cotton type has strength of 29g/Tex, the highest known so far in American cotton. Even among the best of Indian cotton, Suraj - a CICR variety, the highest strength is 25," he said.

Gotmare said she is in the process of stabilizing the new characteristic. "It is the F4 or fourth generation crop. It will be another three years before the cotton type is converted into a variety and put to multi-locational trials," she said.

Gotmare maintains a 'wild species garden' of cotton at CICR and uses some of these for crossing with cultivated ones. She earlier developed four different types of cotton using this method. The new cotton type is also a result of introgressive crossing (cross between two extremely different parents). This experiment was a part of a larger project on improvement of cultivated species using wild sources.

Gotmare crossed a Hirsutum (American) cultivar and a race of cultivated species named Palmeri using conventional crossing or hybridization technique and also a technique called as 'single plant selection' method. It means that the seeds of the best plant in the entire field are used to grow the next crop.

"The fibre quality should remain stable for three consecutive years to be added as a new genetic stock in the existing cottons. It will then go for double quality check through cotton breeders. In fact, it can be used to cross with other varieties to improve their quality," she said. Gotmare is, however, yet to work on the yield aspect of the new cotton type.