The latest weapon in the arsenal to keep Australia's cotton crops free of insect pests has been launched.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 8 minutes 44 seconds 8 m The latest step in battling pests of genetically engineered cotton has been released. Download 4 MB

For two decades, genetically engineered cotton has substantially reduced the amount of pesticide required to grow the crop in Australia, allowing substantive yield gains and monetary and environmental savings.

However, insects have the ability to become resistant to this technology so advances are needed to ensure the Australia's cotton crop remains as pest-free as possible.

The genetic modification (GM) involves adding a bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) to cotton.

Modified crop varieties with a Bt trait produce a protein that is toxic to some insect larva.

Tony May from Monsanto, the American multi-national behind this GM technology, said the latest advance, Bollgard 3, involved the addition of an extra gene or protein to several cotton varieties.

"We're moving from a two-gene product to a three-gene product. The three genes are almost protecting each other," Mr May said.

"That's going to make it much more difficult for insects to develop resistance."

Indian farmers face insect resistance to Bt cotton

The consequences of not staying ahead of the game are evident in one of the world's largest cotton producing countries, India.

Some growers there are now battling the pink bollworm which has developed a resistance to Bt cotton.

Monsanto's Asia/Africa commercial chief, Jagresh Rana said Indian growers did not follow the strict crop management rules laid out for Australian farmers.

"In terms of the refuge management process that has to be done, it's really not that stringent in India," Mr Rana said.

"Small farmers are not able to adopt that refuge processes which is happening here [in Australia] and the regulatory function there is not functioning to bring in new technology."

African farmers happy with Bt cotton, processors not

While Indian cotton farmers struggle with insect resistance, another issue has evolved in Africa, with claims the genetic modification of crops there has resulted in a reduction in cotton fibre quality.

Burkina Faso is the only country in Africa to grow genetically engineered cotton, which was introduced into the West African nation in 2008.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 5 minutes 3 seconds 5 m Assistant Professor Brian Dowd-Uribe, University of San Francisco, and Monsanto's Jagresh Rana discuss the use of GM cotton in the West Africa. Download 2.3 MB

Assistant Professor at the International Studies Department at the University of San Francisco, Brian Dowd-Uribe, said there were 140,000 small farmer households growing Bt cotton which: "represents about 70 per cent of total cotton production there".

Mr Dowd-Uribe said despite local farmers being satisfied with the production gains made by using GM cotton, processors were encouraging local farmers not to grow GM cotton.

He said the GM varieties were "not exhibiting the quality characteristics that they should".

"Now the cotton companies in Burkina Faso have decided they want to phase out genetically engineered cotton over the next three years while they try to search for a solution to the cotton lint problems they're having," he said.

"The lint length that is inferior in the genetically engineered varieties is a shorter length, but we're talking about one 32nd of an inch shorter; it's nothing you're going to see with the naked eye.

"And the amount of length they're able to extract of the seed, otherwise known as the ginning ratio, is less as well."

Monsanto's Jagresh Rana said staple length was a characteristic of the cultivar or variety, and not the Bt technology itself.

Mr Rana said cotton varieties already being grown in Burkina Faso were provided to Monsanto by a public research institution, the Institute of the Environment and Agricultural Research [INERA].

"We put our gene into their varieties. These varieties were already in cultivation," Mr Rana said.

He said the company continued to work with researchers in Burkina Faso to develop more efficient cultivars and new varieties.

"Generally the biotech process of introducing a trait takes almost ten years," he said.

"Anything that is introduced, you only introduce if it delivers additional benefit to the farmers."

Vested interests

Because GM cotton greatly reduces the need for chemicals, Monsanto also claims there is some reluctance to GM cotton in Burkina Faso from people who have a vested interest in the widespread use of farming chemicals.

"There's a group of people who support insecticide, who have significant interests in the insecticide business," Mr Rana said.

"So I think it's those kind of lobbies and groups; their interests could be better served if there is conventional cotton there.

"But that will not serve the interest of Burkina Faso farmers."