Cotton, as a cash crop, has huge economic importance. The high prevalence of pests, illnesses, weed pressure, the evolution of herbicide-resistant weeds, salinity, soil degradation, and climate anomalies such as droughts, floods, and heatwaves all limit cotton output around the world. Strategies like integrated pest management are employed to control the pest population across major cotton-producing countries. This method is effective as it aids in pest management and saves farmers a significant amount of money on pesticide purchases. Biotechnological advances have led to the development of Bt crops, which underwent a series of modifications according to the needs of farmers. Pyramid Bt and the effectiveness of RNA interference technology have been highlighted here. Also advances in the field of genomics have helped us understand plant-pest interaction. The following review is an overview of advancements in the field of cotton pests’ management and the role of genomics and other bioinformatics approaches to better understand the effective management of pests with the least effect on the ecosystem. There is a rising need to develop methods to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at sustainable development. Developments in the field of cotton research for SDGs have also been discussed here.
Key words: Cotton (Gossypium spp.), Insecticide resistance, Integrated Pest Management (IPM), Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS), Molecular markers, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
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