Impact of Different Transgenic and Conventional Cotton Cultivars on Population Dynamics of Whitefly, Bemisia Tabaci

The current study was conducted to assess the performance of transgenic and conventional cotton cultivars in response to population dynamics of whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) in field under RCBD. Five transgenic cotton cultivars (FH-4243, FH-167, FH-113, FH-187 and FH-114) and five conventional cotton cultivars (FH-942, FH-1000, FH-207, FH-901 and FH-941) were used during this study. On the numerical basis, results revealed that transgenic cotton cultivars were more susceptible to whitefly infestation as compared to conventional cotton cultivars. The pooled comparison of whitefly/leaf on different tested cotton cultivars revealed highly significant variations. The results showed that maximum population of whitefly was observed on FH-113 (3.12 whitefly/leaf) while minimum whitefly population was observed on FH-941 (1.89 whitefly/leaf). When data was statistically analyzed, whitefly population on transgenic and conventional cotton cultivars revealed that transgenic cotton cultivars had higher level of whitefly (2.68 whitfly/leaf) compared to conventional cotton cultivars (2.36 whitefly/leaf).