PPP Special 08 - Institut für Entwicklungs- und Agrarökonomik

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averages, daily maximum and minimum retail prices for Bt and non-Bt
varieties in Dharwad district during the 2002-harvesting season.
Table 4.10:
Comparison of market prices non-Bt vs. Bt cotton
[US$/qtl] 9 in Dharwad, 2002
Daily Minimum Daily Maximum Mean
[US$]
[US$]
[US$]
Total Average Non-Bt 39.46 66.22 55.00
Total Average Bt 39.09 47.14 43.12
Source: Retailer, APMC Dharwad, 2003
As shown in Table 4.10, on average, Bt cotton fetched lower prices. The
starting price at the beginning of trading was about the same as the
starting price for non-Bt cotton, however, over the harvesting period the
difference became clear for the daily maximum price. On average, the
retail market price for Bt cotton was 20 per cent lower than for non-Bt
cotton. When asking farmers for the reasons of this difference they
pointed out that Bt cotton is a medium staple variety. Staple length is a
quality characteristic and therefore influences market prices.
Summarizing the findings presented in this section it becomes clear that
during the 2002/2003 harvesting period farmers growing Bt cotton had
overall higher yields (about 10 per cent) than those growing
conventional cotton varieties. This was especially true when
differentiating the sample by irrigation. The difference was bigger
(compare Annex A-4 and A-5) for those farmers that grow Bt and non-Bt
cotton side-by-side, indicating that more care was given to the new
variety. Overall, it is not yet clear what the reason for this yield
difference was because bollworm populations were low in 2002 and
farmers sprayed only moderate amounts of pesticides. On the other
hand, the relative yield advantage of Bt was offset by their lower prices
in the Dharwad retail market as compared to conventional varieties.
Therefore, as a final step, the economics of both types of cotton
production was investigated.
9 1 US$ = 46.45 Indian Rupees