The impact of Bt cotton on poor households in rural India

Arjunan Subramanian¹ and Matin Qaim²

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1. Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Georg-August-University of Goettingen, 37073 Goettingen, Germany
2. Georg-August-University of Goettingen, 37073 Goettingen, Germany

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Document Type:

Manuscript

Date:

Received 18 April 2008 16:13 UTC; Posted 18 April 2008

Subjects:

Biotechnology, Ecology

Tags:

• genetically modified crops
• Bacillus thuringiensis cotton
• rural development
• agriculture

Abstract:

The impact of genetically modified (GM) crops on the poor in developing countries is still the subject of controversy. While previous studies have examined direct productivity effects of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton and other GM crops, little is known about wider socioeconomic outcomes. We develop a microeconomic modeling approach and use comprehensive survey data from India to analyze welfare and distribution effects in a typical village economy. Bt cotton adoption increases aggregate employment with interesting gender implications. Likewise, aggregate household incomes rise, including for poor and vulnerable farmers, suggesting that Bt cotton contributes to poverty reduction and rural development.

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This document is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

How to cite this document:

Subramanian, Arjunan and Qaim, Matin. The impact of Bt cotton on poor households in rural India. Available from Nature Precedings <http://hdl.handle.net/10101/npre.2008.1812.1> (2008)

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