IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v3y2011i8p1136-1169d13344.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Enhancing Sustainability of Cotton Production Systems in West Africa: A Summary of Empirical Evidence from Burkina Faso

Author

Listed:
  • Jeffrey Vitale

    (Oklahoma State University, 308 Ag Hall, Stillwater, OK 74032, USA)

  • Marc Ouattarra

    (Research Scientist, Institute National Environment et Agricole (INERA), 01 BP 208, Bobo Dioulasso 01, Burkina Faso)

  • Gaspard Vognan

    (Research Scientist, Institute National Environment et Agricole (INERA), 01 BP 208, Bobo Dioulasso 01, Burkina Faso)

Abstract

Africa has been hesitant to adopt agricultural biotechnology, lagging behind global trends over the past decade. One exception is Burkina Faso, a West African country that commercially released 125,000 ha of Bt cotton in 2009. Bt cotton may serve as a working example of how African countries can enhance sustainability using modern, science-driven technology to increase production levels while reducing input use and energy consumption. This paper reports the potential impact that Bt cotton can have on sustainability in Burkina Faso’s cotton sector based by summarizing empirical evidence from previously published studies. Based on the summary of published data collected from six years of field trials and producer surveys, Bt cotton increased cotton yields by an average of 21.3% and raised income by $106.14 per ha. Using an energy balance model, the introduction of Bt cotton would also result in a 6.6% saving in energy use. The significant increase in productivity and economic returns could be the catalyst for Burkina Faso, and other African countries, to emerge from the decade or so of stagnation and regain their competitive stance in world cotton markets while providing environmental and social benefits.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffrey Vitale & Marc Ouattarra & Gaspard Vognan, 2011. "Enhancing Sustainability of Cotton Production Systems in West Africa: A Summary of Empirical Evidence from Burkina Faso," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 3(8), pages 1-34, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:3:y:2011:i:8:p:1136-1169:d:13344
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/3/8/1136/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/3/8/1136/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Simon Chege Kimenju & Hugo De Groote, 2008. "Consumer willingness to pay for genetically modified food in Kenya," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 38(1), pages 35-46, January.
    2. Mcmillan, Della E. & Sanders, John H. & Koenig, Dolores & Akwabi-Ameyaw, Kofi & Painter, Thomas M., 1998. "New Land is not enough: Agricultural performance of New Lands settlement in West Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 187-211, February.
    3. Oehmke, James F. & Wolf, Christopher A., 2004. "Is Monsanto Leaving Money on the Table? Monopoly Pricing and Bt Cotton Value with Heterogeneous Adopters," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 36(3), pages 1-14, December.
    4. Richard Bennett & Stephen Morse & Yousouf Ismael, 2006. "The economic impact of genetically modified cotton on South African smallholders: Yield, profit and health effects," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(4), pages 662-677.
    5. Baquedano, Felix G. & Sanders, John H. & Vitale, Jeffrey, 2010. "Increasing incomes of Malian cotton farmers: Is elimination of US subsidies the only solution?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 103(7), pages 418-432, September.
    6. Matin Qaim & Alain de Janvry, 2003. "Genetically Modified Crops, Corporate Pricing Strategies, and Farmers' Adoption: The Case of Bt Cotton in Argentina," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 85(4), pages 814-828.
    7. Huang, Jikun & Hu, Ruifa & Pray, Carl & Qiao, Fangbin & Rozelle, Scott, 2003. "Biotechnology as an alternative to chemical pesticides: a case study of Bt cotton in China," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 55-67, July.
    8. Spielman, David J., 2007. "Pro-poor agricultural biotechnology: Can the international research system deliver the goods?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 189-204, April.
    9. Nicholas Minot & Lisa Daniels, 2005. "Impact of global cotton markets on rural poverty in Benin," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 33(s3), pages 453-466, November.
    10. Elbehri, Aziz & Macdonald, Steve, 2004. "Estimating the Impact of Transgenic Bt Cotton on West and Central Africa: A General Equilibrium Approach," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(12), pages 2049-2064, December.
    11. Pray, Carl & Ma, Danmeng & Huang, Jikun & Qiao, Fangbin, 2001. "Impact of Bt Cotton in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 813-825, May.
    12. Buttel, Frederick H. & Merrill, Jeanne & Chen, Lucy & Goldberger, Jessica & Hurley, Terrance M., 2005. "Bt Corn Farmer Compliance with Insect Resistance Management Requirements: Results from the 2002 Minnesota and Wisconsin Farm Polls," Staff Papers 13659, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    13. Gouse, M & Kirsten, JF & Jenkins, L, 2003. "Bt Cotton In South Africa: Adoption And The Impact On Farm Incomes Amongst Small-Scale And Large Scale Farmers," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 42(1).
    14. Qaim, Matin, 2003. "Bt Cotton in India: Field Trial Results and Economic Projections," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(12), pages 2115-2127, December.
    15. David Pimentel, 2009. "Energy Inputs in Food Crop Production in Developing and Developed Nations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 2(1), pages 1-24, January.
    16. Tumusiime, Emmanuel & De Groote, Hugo & Vitale, Jeffrey D. & Adam, Brian D., 2009. "The Cost of Coexistence between Bt Maize and Open Pollinated Maize Varieties in Lowland Coastal Kenya," 2009 Annual Meeting, January 31-February 3, 2009, Atlanta, Georgia 46726, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    17. Zerbe, Noah, 2004. "Feeding the famine? American food aid and the GMO debate in Southern Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 593-608, December.
    18. Jeffrey D. Vitale & Hamady Djourra & Aminata Sidibé, 2009. "Estimating the supply response of cotton and cereal crops in smallholder production systems: recent evidence from Mali," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 40(5), pages 519-533, September.
    19. de Janvry, Alain & Fafchamps, Marcel & Sadoulet, Elisabeth, 1991. "Peasant Household Behaviour with Missing Markets: Some Paradoxes Explained," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(409), pages 1400-1417, November.
    20. Gouse, Marnus & Kirsten, Johann F. & Jenkins, Lindie, 2002. "Bt Cotton In South Africa: Adoption And The Impact On Farm Incomes Amongst Small-Scale And Large Scale Farmers," Working Papers 18022, University of Pretoria, Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development.
    21. Lele, Uma & Adu-Nyako, Kofi, 1992. "Approaches to uprooting poverty in Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 95-108, April.
    22. Bhavani Shankar & Colin Thirtle, 2005. "Pesticide Productivity and Transgenic Cotton Technology: The South African Smallholder Case," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(1), pages 97-116, March.
    23. de Janvry, Alain & Fafchamps, M. & Sadoulet, Elisabeth, 1991. "Peasant Household Behavior with Missing Markets: Some Paradoxes Explain," CUDARE Working Papers 198579, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    24. Kirsten, Johann F. & Gouse, Marnus, 2002. "The Adoption And Impact Of Agricultural Biotechnology Innovations In South Africa," Working Papers 18054, University of Pretoria, Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lin Wang & Guofang Hu & Yaojie Yue & Xinyue Ye & Min Li & Jintao Zhao & Jinhong Wan, 2016. "GIS-Based Risk Assessment of Hail Disasters Affecting Cotton and Its Spatiotemporal Evolution in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-20, February.
    2. Luna, Jessie K. & Dowd-Uribe, Brian, 2020. "Knowledge politics and the Bt cotton success narrative in Burkina Faso," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    3. Gouzaye, Amadou & Vitale, Jeffrey D. & Epplin, Francis M. & Adam, Brian D. & Stoecker, Arthur L., 2013. "The Value of Price Stabilization Policy for Cotton Producers in Burkina Faso," 2013 Annual Meeting, February 2-5, 2013, Orlando, Florida 142882, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    4. Staritz, Cornelia & Tröster, Bernhard, 2015. "Cotton-based development in Sub-Saharan Africa? Global commodity chains, national market structure and development outcomes in Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Tanzania," Working Papers 54, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE).
    5. Emmanuel Tumusiime & B. Wade Brorsen & Jeffrey D. Vitale, 2014. "Vertical integration in West Africa's cotton industry: are parastatals a second best solution?," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 45(S1), pages 129-143, November.
    6. World Bank, 2013. "Burkina Faso : Determinants of Cereal Production, Stochastic Frontier Approach for Panel Data," World Bank Publications - Reports 15990, The World Bank Group.
    7. Amouzou, Kokou Adambounou & Naab, Jesse B. & Lamers, John P.A. & Borgemeister, Christian & Becker, Mathias & Vlek, Paul L.G., 2018. "CROPGRO-Cotton model for determining climate change impacts on yield, water- and N- use efficiencies of cotton in the Dry Savanna of West Africa," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 85-96.
    8. World Bank, 2013. "Burkina Faso : What is Driving Cotton Production, Stochastic Frontier Approach for Panel Data," World Bank Publications - Reports 15989, The World Bank Group.
    9. Aerni, Philipp, 2011. "Food Sovereignty and its Discontents," Papers 267, World Trade Institute.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Suntornpithug, Pasu & Kalaitzandonakes, Nicholas G., 2009. "Understanding the Adoption of Cotton Biotechnologies in the US: Firm Level Evidence," Agricultural Economics Review, Greek Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 10(1), pages 1-17.
    2. Subramanian, Arjunan & Qaim, Matin, 2009. "Village-wide Effects of Agricultural Biotechnology: The Case of Bt Cotton in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 256-267, January.
    3. Qiao, Fangbin, 2015. "Fifteen Years of Bt Cotton in China: The Economic Impact and its Dynamics," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 177-185.
    4. Falck-Zepeda, Jose & Horna, Daniela & Smale, Melinda, 2007. "The economic impact and the distribution of benefits and risk from the adoption of insect resistant (Bt) cotton in West Africa," IFPRI discussion papers 718, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    5. Eicher, Carl K. & Maredia, Karim & Sithole-Niang, Idah, 2006. "Crop biotechnology and the African farmer," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 504-527, December.
    6. Robert Finger & Nadja El Benni & Timo Kaphengst & Clive Evans & Sophie Herbert & Bernard Lehmann & Stephen Morse & Nataliya Stupak, 2011. "A Meta Analysis on Farm-Level Costs and Benefits of GM Crops," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 3(5), pages 1-20, May.
    7. Gouse, Marnus, 2013. "Socioeconomic and farm-level effects of genetically modified crops: The case of Bt crops in South Africa," IFPRI book chapters, in: Falck-Zepeda, Jose Benjamin & Gruère, Guillaume P. & Sithole-Niang, Idah (ed.), Genetically modified crops in Africa: Economic and policy lessons from countries south of the Sahara, chapter 1, pages 25-41, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    8. 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.
    9. Klara Fischer & Camilla Eriksson, 2016. "Social Science Studies on European and African Agriculture Compared: Bringing Together Different Strands of Academic Debate on GM Crops," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-17, August.
    10. Eicher, Carl K. & Maredia, Karim & Sithole-Niang, Idah, 2005. "Biotechnology and the African Farmer," Staff Paper Series 11495, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    11. Qiao, Fangbin & Huang, Jikun & Wang, Xiaobing, 2017. "Fifteen Years of Bt Cotton in China: Results from Household Surveys," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 351-359.
    12. Sydorovych, Olha & Marra, Michele C., 2007. "A Genetically Engineered Crop's Impact on Pesticide Use: A Revealed-Preference Index Approach," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 32(3), pages 1-16, December.
    13. Michel Fok & Marnus Gouse & Jean-Luc Hofs & Johann Kirsten, 2007. "Contextual appraisal of GM cotton diffusion in South Africa," Post-Print halshs-00176546, HAL.
    14. Smyth, Stuart J. & Falck-Zepeda, Jose & Ludlow, Karinne, 2016. "The Costs of Regulatory Delays for Genetically Modified Crops," Estey Centre Journal of International Law and Trade Policy, Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade, vol. 17(2), pages 1-23, December.
    15. Bhargava, Anil K., 2013. "The Impact of India’s Rural Employment Guarantee on Demand for Agricultural Technology," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150163, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    16. Evita Pangaribowo & Nicolas Gerber & Pascal Tillie, 2013. "Assessing the FNS impacts of technological and institutional innovations and future innovation trends," FOODSECURE Working papers 11, LEI Wageningen UR.
    17. Rousselière, Samira & Rousselière, Damien & Ramani, Shyama, 2016. "Innovation Led Alliances: Theory and application to the GM Plant Industry," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235711, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    18. Subramanian, Arjunan & Qaim, Matin, 2009. "Rural Poverty and Employment Effects of Bt Cotton in India," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 50555, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. Gomez-Barbero, Manuel & Rodgriguez-Cerezo, Emilio, 2005. "Estimate of the Potential Adoption of Genetically Modified Cotton by Farmers in Southern Spain and its Economic Implications," 2005 International Congress, August 23-27, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark 24556, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    20. Thirtle, Colin G. & Piesse, Jenifer & Gouse, Marnus, 2005. "Agricultural technology, productivity and employment: Policies for poverty reduction," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 44(1), pages 1-23, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:3:y:2011:i:8:p:1136-1169:d:13344. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.