• 2009 Small Grants Competition

    to adopt a cross-learning and iterative approach that will enable all researchers to learn from each other across different types of bio-innovation throughout the region.

  • Overview of the Project

    to enhance biological innovative capabilities, policies & institutions to support just, equitable & sustainable social & economic development in developing countries.

  • Bio-innovations in the NEWS

    Policy briefs and articles on relevant dimensions of bio-innovation.

Enabling bioinnovation for poverty allevation in Asia.

Bt cotton: benefits for poor farmers?

An IDS Publication

Cotton genetically engineered to express the insecticidal toxin Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt cotton) has been celebrated as a success story for poor farmers in developing countries. Bt cotton varieties have been adopted by commercial and smallholder farmers in several developing countries, including China, South Africa and India. In 2002, Bt cotton varieties occupied 20% of the global cotton area and more than half of the national cotton acreage in China. An estimated 90% of smallholder cotton farmers in the Makhatini Flats area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, planted Bt cotton.

Dominic Glover. 2003. ‘Bt cotton: benefits for poor farmers?’ Democratising Biotechnology: Genetically Modified Crops in Developing Countries Briefing Series. Briefing 9. Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies. ISBN 1 85864 487 9

www.ids.ac.uk/biotech

The whole document (PDF File) can be accessed at:

http://www.ids.ac.uk/UserFiles/File/knots_team/Briefing9.pdf