Our Perspective

Cotton Improving Lives of Farmers, Villages in India

By Produce More Conserve More

Posted about 1 year ago

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For Indian cotton farmer Eknath Shivram Pandit, biotech seeds have improved his farming practices, income and life. “I bought a truck, tractor, built a house, and dug a well. Before we would use an ox cart,” says Pandit, who adds: “I am more enthusiastic about farming. It’s worth it now.”

In hundreds of villages in India where biotech cotton grows, the economic and social benefits for farmers like Pandit become clearer every year. Two major studies [1] underscore the profound impact that increased yields from biotech cotton seeds have on farmers, their families, and the villages where they live.

Economically, biotech cotton farmers in India earn about US$176 more per acre than do farmers who use conventional cotton hybrids. Their yields are 50 percent higher and they use less precious water and five fewer pesticide sprays against bollworms. Almost all (93%) are satisfied with their biotech cotton performance.

What does this set in motion? Better lifestyles. Women get more maternal health care and children more inoculations. More of their children go to school longer. Their rural villages benefit greatly as well. Villages where biotech cotton is planted, on average, support one-third more merchants and villagers have increased access to electricity, drinking water, telephone systems, banking services, better Internet connections and better access to markets.

Biotech cotton farmer Keshavrao Bhaurao Pawar says his family has farmed for 50 years “but we did not gain anything. We were living with loans on our heads.” Since using biotech cultivation practices, “we got a daughter married, built a house, which we could not have done otherwise.” And, adds his daughter, Kavita, “We get to go on a trip.”

Since 2002, when the first biotechnology plant product was approved in India for commercial use, farmers there have been among the most rapid adopters of biotech cotton. With agriculture providing 23 percent of India’s gross domestic product and employing nearly 700 million people, plant biotechnology in India promises a better future.

1. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India underwrote two studies, “The Socio-economic Appraisal of BT Cotton Cultivation in India” by Indicus Analytics and a study on “Economic Benefits of BT Cotton Cultivation in India” by The IMRB International.