Cotton hybrids expressing various endotoxins of B. thruringiensis, per se fitting into genetic or host-plant resistance and biological tools of integrated pest management (IPM) have given a new dimension and impetus to the IPM philosophy that aims to reduce the massive reliance on insecticides for pest management on the conventional or non-Bt cotton.

Cotton, as a commercial crop has gone through subsistence, ecological, exploitation, crisis and disaster phases of pest management, with insecticides on focus at the later three stages. Restructuring of pest-management strategies during the last few decades under the banner of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) or Insecticide Resistance Management (IRM)continued to give considerable and selective preference respectively, to the insecticides. Such an approach could only achieve the short-term benefits of reducing the pesticide usage and improving the profit accrued by the farmers.