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Subject: Agricultural Economics × End date: 2007 × Start date: 2007 ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    An Economic analysis of production and marketing of Bt-cotton in Haryana and Karnataka
    (CCSHAU, 2007) Shiva Kumar; Mehta, V.P.
    Cotton is India’s major commercial crop covering about 9.3 million hectares of area, ranking first in the world. It ranks third in the world in production with 2.51 million tonnes. In India, during 2005-06 Bt-cotton was grown on 9 lakh hectares and 100 per cent increase is expected in 2006- 07 according to International Service for the Acquisition of Agri.-Biotech application (ISAAA). However, the productivity (300 kg/ha) of non Bt-cotton in the country is considerably low. The major reason for this is due to damage caused by insect-pests, notably Helicoverpa armigera, commonly referred to as American bollworm. Meanwhile with the advance of technology biotechnological tools came handy in transferring pest resistance genes in cotton. Bt cotton has the gene from the soil bacteria, Bacillus thuringiensis, to effectively control the bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera. On the one hand there were hopes that Bt cotton would help reduce the pesticide use, increase the yield and make the cultivation of cotton more economical and environmental friendly, and on the other hand, there were serious apprehensions that this would be used to increased pest resistance, antibiotic resistance, increased genetic pollution, destruction of biodiversity and perpetual dependence on trans-national agrochemical and seed companies. Visualizing the above constraints and importance of Bt cotton in both the states the present study was under taken with the following objectives: i) To study the comparative economics of Bt and American cotton cultivation, ii) To examine the marketing pattern, costs and margins through different channels and iii) To study the constraints in production and marketing. To derive the inferences of the study, the primary data were collected from 120 farmers i.e. 60 each from Haryana and Karnataka acted as ultimate unit of the sample. The required data pertaining to marketing pattern, costs and margin were collected from 10 respondents from the main markets situated in the study area and used in the analysis by using simple tabular analysis. The average total cost of cultivation per acre of American cotton was Rs. 11862 and Rs. 10186 and Bt-cotton was Rs. 14478 and Rs. 11772, in Haryana and Karnataka, respectively. The rental value of land, the harvesting/picking charges and plant protection charges were the main items of cost in American cotton but in case of Bt-cotton plant protection charges were replaced by seed cost in both the states. The gross returns obtained from American cotton was Rs. 13890 and Rs. 12866 and Bt-cotton was Rs. 17400 and Rs. 14467 in Haryana and Karnataka, respectively. The comparative analysis revealed significant difference in yield and gross returns among the two states. The Haryana state faired better over Karnataka. Growing of Btcotton found to be profitable over American cotton among both the states. The study of marketing pattern of Bt-cotton revealed that 15 per cent of total producers partially sold 4.77 per cent of the total production within the villages itself and remaining 95.23 per cent of the produce was sold in the market. In the study, three marketing channels i.e. producerà ginning mill, producerà wholesalerà ginning mill and producerà commission agentà ginning mill were identified. The channel-I was found to be more efficient with farmers, receiving highest share in miller’s price followed by channel-II and channel-III in both the states. The main production constraints noticed were non-availability of adequate good quality seed, non-availability of labour, unfavourable climatic condition, lack of technical knowledge and non-availability good quality insecticides/ pesticides. The major marketing constraints were low price of Bt-cotton produce in market, mixing of Bt-cotton and non-Bt-cotton, lack of extension and marketing services and non-availability of adequate processing units/ mills.