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Bt Cotton, Pesticide Use and Environmental Efficiency in Pakistan

Author

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  • Abedullah
  • Shahzad Kouser
  • Matin Qaim

Abstract

type="main" xml:id="jage12072-abs-0001"> There is a broad literature on the impact of Bt cotton adoption in different countries, but few studies have explicitly looked at environmental and health effects from an economic perspective. We analyse the impact of Bt cotton on environmental efficiency in Pakistan, using farm survey data and a doubly heteroskedastic stochastic production function framework. Negative environmental and health effects of chemical pesticide use are quantified with the environmental impact quotient. Bt-adopting farms have higher cotton yields, while using lower pesticide quantities and causing less environmental damage. Bt farms are both technically and environmentally more efficient than non-Bt farms. Bt adoption increases environmental efficiency by 37%. Achieving the same reduction in negative environmental and health impact without Bt would cost conventional cotton farmers US$ 54 per acre in terms of foregone yields and revenues (7% of total revenues). Extrapolating this shadow price of the technology's health and environmental benefits to the total Bt cotton area in Pakistan results in an aggregate value of US$ 370 million. These benefits are in addition to the profit gains for Bt-adopting farmers. Our results suggest that Bt technology can contribute to sustainable agricultural development.

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  • Abedullah & Shahzad Kouser & Matin Qaim, 2015. "Bt Cotton, Pesticide Use and Environmental Efficiency in Pakistan," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(1), pages 66-86, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jageco:v:66:y:2015:i:1:p:66-86
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/jage.2014.66.issue-1
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Tefera, T. & Kassie, M. & Midingoyi, S. & Muriithi, B., 2018. "Do farmers and the environment benefit from adopting IPM practices? Evidence from Kenya," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 275946, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Zhang, Ruojin, 2016. "The Effects of Residue Tolerance on Pesticide Use, Hop Marketing and Social Welfare," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235155, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Kouser, Shahzad & Qaim, Matin & Abedullah, 2015. "Bt cotton and employment effects for female agricultural laborers in Pakistan: An application of double-hurdle model," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212014, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Zheng, Hongyun & Ma, Wanglin & Wang, Fang & Li, Gucheng, 2021. "Does internet use improve technical efficiency of banana production in China? Evidence from a selectivity-corrected analysis," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    5. Zhiqi Sun & Ruifa Hu & Yu Hong, 2022. "Does yield gap still matter? Evidence from rice production in China," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(3), pages 829-840, June.
    6. Nguyen To-The & Tuan Nguyen-Anh, 2021. "Impact of government intervention to maize efficiency at farmer’s level across time: a robust evidence in Northern Vietnam," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 2038-2061, February.
    7. Xingliang Ma & Melinda Smale & David J. Spielman & Patricia Zambrano & Hina Nazli & Fatima Zaidi, 2017. "A Question of Integrity: Variants of Bt Cotton, Pesticides and Productivity in Pakistan," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(2), pages 366-385, June.
    8. Yan, Siqi & Peng, Jianchao & Wu, Qun, 2020. "Exploring the non-linear effects of city size on urban industrial land use efficiency: A spatial econometric analysis of cities in eastern China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    9. Junying Lin & Songqing Jin & Hongdong Guo, 2023. "Do outsourcing services provided by agricultural cooperatives affect technical efficiency? Insights from tobacco farmers in China," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(3), pages 781-804, September.
    10. Dipanwita Sarkar & Trevor C. Collier, 2019. "Does host-country education mitigate immigrant inefficiency? Evidence from earnings of Australian university graduates," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 81-106, January.
    11. Fangbin Qiao & Jikun Huang & Caiping Zhang, 2016. "The Sustainability of the Farm-level Impact of Bt Cotton in China," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(3), pages 602-618, September.
    12. Shahzad Kouser & David J Spielman & Matin Qaim, 2019. "Transgenic cotton and farmers’ health in Pakistan," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(10), pages 1-19, October.
    13. Omotuyole Isiaka Ambali & Francisco Jose Areal & Nikolaos Georgantzis, 2021. "Improved Rice Technology Adoption: The Role of Spatially-Dependent Risk Preference," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-13, July.
    14. Lei Jiang & Henk Folmer & Minhe Ji & Jianjun Tang, 2017. "Energy efficiency in the Chinese provinces: a fixed effects stochastic frontier spatial Durbin error panel analysis," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 58(2), pages 301-319, March.
    15. Salomé Kahindo & Stéphane Blancard, 2022. "Reducing pesticide use through optimal reallocation at different spatial scales: The case of French arable farming," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 53(4), pages 648-666, July.
    16. Kassie, Menale & Abro, Zewdu & Kimathi, Emily & De Groote, Hugo & Tefera, Tadele & Subramanian, Sevgan & Wossen, Tesfamichael & Ekesi, Sunday & Ekesi, Sunday, 2021. "The Economic, Food Security, and Health Effects of Fall Armyworm in Ethiopia," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315887, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. Chellattan Veettil, Prakashan & Krishna, Vijesh V. & Qaim, Matin, 2014. "Bt Cotton and Ecosystem Impacts of Pesticide Reductions," GlobalFood Discussion Papers 180977, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, GlobalFood, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.
    18. Ferreira, Marcelo Dias Paes & Féres, José Gustavo, 2020. "Farm size and Land use efficiency in the Brazilian Amazon," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).

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