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For more than 20 years cotton has been the most widely sown genetically modified (GM) crop in Mexico. Its cultivation has fulfilled all requirements and has gone through the different regulatory stages. During the last 20 years, both research-institutions and biotech-companies have generated scientific and technical information regarding GM cotton cultivation in Mexico. In this work, we collected data in order to analyze the environmental and agronomic effects of the use of GM cotton in Mexico. In 1996, the introduction of Bt cotton made it possible to reactivate this crop, which in previous years was greatly reduced due to pest problems, production costs and environmental concerns. Bt cotton is a widely accepted tool for cotton producers and has proven to be efficient for the control of lepidopteran pests. The economic benefits of its use are variable, and depend on factors such as the international cotton-prices and other costs associated with its inputs. So far, the management strategies used to prevent development of insect resistance to GM cotton has been successful, and there are no reports of insect resistance development to Bt cotton in Mexico. In addition, no effects have been observed on non-target organisms. For herbicide tolerant cotton, the prevention of herbicide resistance has also been successful since unlike other countries, the onset of resistance weeds is still slow, apparently due to cultural practices and rotation of different herbicides. Environmental benefits have been achieved with a reduction in chemical insecticide applications and the subsequent decrease in primary pest populations, so that the inclusion of other technologies—e.g., use of non-Bt cotton- can be explored. Nevertheless, control measures need to be implemented during transport of the bolls and fiber to prevent dispersal of volunteer plants and subsequent gene flow to wild relatives distributed outside the GM cotton growing areas. It is still necessary to implement national research programs, so that biotechnology and plant breeding advances can be used in the development of cotton varieties adapted to the Mexican particular environmental conditions and to control insect pests of regional importance.

Insecticide susceptibility in tobacco budworm, Heliothis virescens (F.) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), was determined for 8 yr (1991-2001) with larvae sampled from cotton in southern Tamaulipas, Mexico. Before 1996, when Bollgard cotton expressing the Cry1A(c) delta-endotoxin was introduced into the region, two important patterns were documented. The first was economically significant increases in resistance to certain insecticide groups. The second was occurrence of virtually complete control failures in the field during 1994 and 1995. The largest resistance changes were recorded for the type II pyrethroids cypermethrin and deltamethrin. These products are the most widely used products in the region. Resistance ratios for these products increased up to > 100-fold from 1991 to 1995. After 1996, the resistance levels declined. These findings did not occur with other products of scant use (e.g., permethrin, profenofos, and endosulfan) or low tobacco budworm efficacy coupled to a high use pattern (e.g., methyl parathion). This clear trend toward reversal of resistance to type II pyrethroids can be understood, in part, with respect to two factors: 1) the high adoption rate of transgenic cotton in the region, from 31.2% in the beginning (1996) to approximately 90% in 1998; this has considerably curbed the use of synthetic insecticides, with the attending loss of selection pressure on this pest; and 2) the potential immigration to the region of susceptible tobacco budworms from cultivated and wild suitable hosts as well as from transgenic cotton might have influenced the pest population as a whole. The influence of transgenic cotton on southern Tamaulipas can be more clearly seen by the drastic reduction of insecticide use to control this important pest. Now tobacco budworms in this region are susceptible to type II pyrethroids. Two effective and fundamentally different pest management tools are now available to cotton growers in southern Tamaulipas: transgenic cotton, coupled with careful use of pyrethroids, offers the possibility of sustainable and profitable cotton production.