An Economic analysis of production and marketing of Bt-cotton in Haryana and Karnataka
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Date
2007
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Publisher
CCSHAU
Abstract
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.
Description
Keywords
Bt-cotton, Helicoverpa armigera, Bacillus thuringiensis, Tabular analysis, Marketing Pattern