Abstract

The cultivation of P216F cotton as an off-seasonal orop in the rice fallows of Madras state is of recent origin, within the last two decades. With all its proved merits for successful utilisation of rice fallows (Balasubramanian, 1952; Iyengar et al, 1958; Neelakantan et al, 1959 and Iyemperumal et al, 1960), only a total area of 16,100 acres is estimated to be under this cotton (Fifth and Final Forecast Report 1963-64, Madras State) in the State. The progress made in this direction is reported to be not quite satisfactory (Ramachandran et al, 1960). They have, therefore, stressed the need for evolving a cotton strain shorter in duration than the present P216F cotton for a planned approach towards the problem of solving the varietal bottleneck in the cotton cultivation in wet lands after the harvest of thalady or to suit the short fallow periods in the deltaic regions. Sikka and Avtar Singh (1961) have observed that increased yields were obtained in U. S. S. R. by increasing plant population per unit area facilitated by short branch character and enrliness possessed by varieties grown there. The short branch trait with extreme earliness under our conditions is considered valuable for exploiting the advantageous habit of growth to suit the growing demand for a cotton strain earlier than P216F in the rice fallows of the State. The paper summarises the study undertaken to explore the possibility of directly introducing short branching, short duration and early maturing varieties in the rice fallows of the State.

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