ISLAMABAD, Jul 23 (APP) - Cotton alone contributes nearly 65pc of the foreign exchange earnings of Pakistan and the two Bt cotton varieties (IR 3701 & IR 1524) developed by Pakistan Atomic Energy Commissions (PAEC) Biotech Centre, NIBGE hopefully will help in achieving cotton vision 2015 of government which aims to boost production, aiming 20 million bales by 2015. An official of PAEC while talking to APP said Bt cotton technology is expected to reduce production (input) cost as well as reduction in number of sprays of dangerous and toxic chemicals. He said the Plant Genomics & Molecular Breeding Labs of NIBGE developed IR- 3701 which has a very high ginning out turn (GOT) percentage (43-47pc) and is substantially higher than the GOT (35-40pc) of present cultivated varieties. It simply means more lint than seed official said,adding this variety has out yielded the standards and all Bt cotton lines tested in NCVT 2009-10. He further said that the second approved variety IR-1524 is tolerant to water stress, a feature emerging as a national threat to agriculture productivity. It has also shown higher tolerance to cotton leaf virus disease,he added. It is expected that these two approved cotton varieties will soon be cultivated in large cotton areas of Punjab and Sindh, he elaborated.