Valuing financial, health, and environmental benefits of Bt cotton in Pakistan

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Abstract: Data from a farm survey and choice experiment are used to value the benefits of Bt cotton in Pakistan. Unlike previous research on the economic impacts of Bt, which mostly concentrated on financial benefits in terms of gross margins, we also quantify and monetize positive externalities associated with technology adoption. Due to lower chemical pesticide use on Bt cotton plots, there are significant health advantages in terms of reduced incidence of acute pesticide poisoning, and environmental advantages in terms of higher biodiversity and lower soil and groundwater contamination. These positive externalities are valued at US$ 79 per acre, of which half is attributable to health and the other half to environmental improvements. Adding average gross margin gains of US$ 204 results in an aggregate benefit of US$ 283 per acre of Bt, or US$ 1.7 billion for the total Bt cotton area in Pakistan. Terms of use: Documents in Acknowledgements

Deconstructing Indian cotton: weather, yields, and suicides

“…Short-season cotton was replaced by fertile Bt cotton despite no increases in yield because implementation requirements were less stringent, it gives excellent control of PBW [58], and in an industrial setting, the costs of the Bt technology are an acceptable cost-effective alternative to short-season cotton (see Additional file 1). Bt cotton is "softer" on natural enemies than insecticides [59,60] enabling reductions in insecticide use [61] that allows secondary pests (e.g., bollworms, budworms, whiteflies) to recede to prior low pest status [33]. Though not significantly different, mean natural enemy densities in Bt cotton are consistently lower than those in unsprayed non-Bt cotton [62], and the efficacy of some natural enemies is reduced when feeding on Bt-intoxicated prey [63,64].…”

Bt cotton, damage control and optimal levels of pesticide use in Pakistan

“…This is backed up by empirical evidence. Kouser and Qaim (2013) tried to quantify and monetize the positive health and environmental impacts of Bt cotton adoption in Pakistan. There is also research showing the positive environmental effects of Bt crops, including enhanced biocontrol services through higher diversity of beneficial insects, and better soil and groundwater quality through lower pesticide contamination (Shelton et al, 2002;Knox et al, 2006;Morse et al, 2006;Wolfenbarger et al, 2008;Lu et al, 2012).…”

Small farmers’ preferences for weather index insurance: insights from Kenya

“…DCEs are also consistent with random utility theory, which suggests that, given a finite set of alternatives, a rational individual will always prefer the alternative that yields the highest utility [52]. DCEs are frequently applied in agriculture and environmental valuation to study consumer and producer preferences in multi-attribute choice problems [55][56][57][58]. But, as explained, choice-experimental methods have not yet been widely used to analyze farmer preferences for WII.…”