Bt cotton boosts farmers' income: CESS

A study on the socioeconomic impact of Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) cotton, conducted by the Hyderabad-based Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), has revealed that a Bt cotton farmer could improve his net income by 83 per cent over a non Bt cotton cultivator.

According to CESS director, S Mahendra Dev, and his colleague, N Chandrasekhara Rao, who conducted the study, the net income, farm business income, family labour income and farm investment income per acre in Bt cotton improved by Rs 1,806 (83 per cent), Rs 3,067 (146 per cent), Rs 2,088 (158 per cent) and Rs 2,785 (222 per cent) respectively over non-Bt cotton. The farm business has been shown as the excess of gross income over paid-up costs.

"This clearly shows that Bt cotton outperformed non-Bt cotton in regard to all the measures," they stated.

The study was conducted in 14 villages belonging to the districts of Warangal, Nalgonda, Guntur and Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh. The sample size was 623. The proportion of Bt cotton adopters and non-adopters was around 70 and 30 per cent respectively. The data collected pertained to kharif 2004-05.

According to the study, the per acre cost of production of Bt cotton at Rs 16,975 is higher by 17 per cent compared with Rs 14,507 incurred by non-Bt cotton cultivator.

However, the yield obtained in Bt cotton is 9.49 quintals per acre, 32 per cent higher compared with 7.21 quintals in non-Bt cotton fields. As a result, the cost of production of quintal of cotton is lower by Rs 223 in the case of Bt cotton.

The cost of Bt cotton production is higher despite an 18 per cent decline in expenditure on insecticides due to increased cost of seed (Rs 804 more than non-Bt cotton seed), labour costs (Rs 801), fertilsers (Rs 86) and irrigation charges (Rs 45). The cost of Bt cotton seed is Rs 1,402 per acre while it stood at Rs 598 in the case of non-Bt cotton.

The results of the study, Mahendra Dev says, explain why there is a rapid rise in adoption of the transgenic technology in a matter of five years in India. The area under Bt cotton increased from 44,500 hectares in 2002-03 to 3.8 million hectares by 2006-07 comprising 40 per cent of the cotton area in the country.

The CESS director, however, feels that further research is needed to ascertain any adverse impact of Bt cotton on environment and other natural resources including fauna and flora.