Volume 14 | Issue 5
Volume 14 | Issue 5
Volume 14 | Issue 5
Volume 14 | Issue 5
Volume 14 | Issue 5
The decadal experience of Bt cotton is discussed in the article with reference to suicides of farmers, agronomy, environment and health issues. The experience of Bt cotton in India is claimed to be success but evoked lot of critical issues at the social, economic, environment and political level. The advent of Bt cotton increased the production of cotton but it is also a fact that farmers suicide was more reported in the cotton growing belts of India. The article argues that the increase in production is exclusively subscribed to the new technology without the analysing the shift of cotton cultivation from rainfed to irrigated lands, increased input costs and the stress of farmers in imbibing the new technology. The experience of cotton revealed that the farmers are unequally placed in the operation of market. The economic reforms of the government have not strengthened the farmers to take benefit out of new technologies offered by the private. The farmers differ in their capacity to take risks to invest in the new technology. There was also a knowledge gap between the farmers and Bt cotton which reduced the benefits of the technology.