PATTIKONDA:26/02/2020.

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Gyopssisum in the mallow family Malvacae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. Under natural conditions, the cotton bolls will increase the dispersal of the seeds. The plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa, Egypt and India.

The fiber is most often spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, textile.Current estimates for world production are about 25 million tonnes or 110 million bales annually, accounting for 2.5% of the world’s arable land. India is the world’s largest producer of cotton. it is the most widely use natural fiber cloth in clothing today.The United States has been the largest exporter for many years.

• There are 4 types of cotton:
• Gossypium hirsutum – upland cotton, native to america
• Gossypium barbadense– known as extra-long staple cotton, native to tropical South America
• Gossypium arboreum– tree cotton, native to India
• Gossypium Herbecea – Levant cotton

Planting time in spring in the Northern hemisphere varies from the beginning of February to the beginning of June.Cotton is naturally a perennial but is grown as an annual to help control pests.cotton grown today is cultivated in areas with less rainfall that obtain the water from irrigation.Cotton can also be cultivated to have colors other than the yellowish off-white typical of modern commercial cotton fibers. 

The bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) naturally produces a chemical harmful only to a small fraction of insects, most notably the larvae of moths,insects,butterflies and flies, and harmless to other forms of life.The gene coding for Bt toxin has been inserted into cotton, causing cotton, called Bt cotton, to produce this natural insecticide in its tissues.Cotton has gossypol, a toxin that makes it inedible. Bt cotton is ineffective against many cotton pests, and however, such as plant bugs,aphids and stink plants.

Cotton is used to make a number of textile products. These include terrycloth for highly absorbent bath towels,denims,robes,cambric, popularly used in the manufacture of blue work shirts and cotton twill. Socks ,clothes and most T shirts are made from cotton. Bed sheets often are made from cotton. Cotton also is used to make yarn used in crocheted and knitting. In the Textile industry, cotton is used in Fishing nets,coffee filters,Tentsexplosives manufacture  cotton paper, and in book binding. Fire hoseswere once made of cotton.