Publication - June 14, 2010
There is widespread propaganda that genetically-engineered
(GE) crops provide the silver bullet for poverty and hunger
eradication. On the other hand, recent global analyses have
concluded that ecological farming - using low-cost, locally
available and agro-ecological technologies – is effectively
reaching the same aim.
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Executive summary: We compared the economic livelihoods of rain-fed smallholding cotton farmers in South India growing Bt cotton (‘Bt cotton’: cotton varieties genetically engineered to produced an insecticidal toxin) with those growing non-Bt organic cotton. This study, therefore, is a comparative analysis of two contrasting methods of agriculture: Bt cotton cropping that comes together with chemically intensive agriculture vs. ecological farming in the example of organic cotton farmers.
Our goal is to document the realities of farming taking place right now in the Indian cotton regions, and thus the focus of our analysis is the economic livelihood of the cotton farmers themselves. Our study is not a technical analysis of the performance of the genetically-engineered Bt trait isolated from its surrounding circumstances, but an analysis of what results when farmers grow Bt cotton under the conditions faced by the majority of farmers in India (and other developing countries) - i.e. smallholding farms, rain-fed and poor.
Millions of Indian farmers are dependent on the money brought in by their annual cotton crop. The cotton crop represents by far the largest income for these households, and in nearly all cases is crucial for the farmer’s family’s survival. In India, cotton represents one of the most economically important commodities in the country and it is central to the livelihood of the many millions of farmers who grow cotton every year. Cotton is one of the major traded commodities worldwide, with a global export value of about $12 billion US dollars, similar to the global export value of a staple grain as important as rice (FAOSTATS 2010). When the cotton fields fail to produce a good crop, as in the dry year of 2009, millions of Indian farmers and their families are left in deep economic distress. This case study shows the economic stability and benefit for Indian farmers of farming cotton organically and without genetic engineering and toxic chemicals.