Maharashtra Bt cotton farmers earn 68% lower incomes, says YUVA

04 Apr '06

3 min read

The YUVA today release the findings of a scientific study, which compares the performance of Bt Cotton along various parameters of cost, pest incidence, yields, other effects etc., with non-Bt Cotton grown in similar conditions in the state of Maharashtra.

Bt Cotton: Higher investment for better results

“While yields of non-Bt Cotton are marginally lower than Bt Cotton, the Cost of Cultivation is 23.5% higher in the case of Bt Cotton.

Non-Bt Cotton has also fetched marginally better prices for the farmers than Bt Cotton. Due to all of this, overall, non-Bt Cotton farmers have obtained more net incomes than Bt Cotton farmers.

This is 68% more income than Bt Cotton farmers. Our report only reiterates the state government's comparative analysis of non- Bt, IPM, Organic, and Bt Cotton which shows that the cost of cultivation of IPM and organic cotton are significantly lower than Bt Cotton. ” said Palash Ghoshal (YUVA), the Principal Investigator of the study.

The Cost of Cultivation data also shows a difference not only in the seed cost between Bt Cotton and non-Bt Cotton, but also in terms of fertiliser cost (around 21% lower in non-Bt Cotton) and pesticide cost.

In fertilizer application, while the average was 2.06 for non-Bt Cotton, for Bt Cotton, an average number of 2.56 applications of fertilizer contributed to the results seen Bt Cotton: Increased water requirement for better results.

The study also showed that the performance of the Bt Cotton improved with irrigation.

More Textiles News - India...