Village-Wide Effects of Agricultural Biotechnology:The Case of Bt Cotton in India
Subramanian Arjunan, Georg-August-University of Goettingen
Previous studies on impacts of agricultural biotechnology have mostly
focused on direct effects. We suggest an economy-wide framework to analyze income distribution aspects more carefully. For a village in India, a micro social accounting matrix (SAM) is developed and used to simulate the effects of Bt cotton adoption. Overall, the technology is employment generating, although family labor in cotton production is saved. While substantial benefits are observed for small and large farmers,total household income effects are bigger for larger farms. This is mostly due to differential opportunity incomes of saved family labor. Some research and policy implications are discussed.
About the speaker
Subramanian Arjunan is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Göttingen, Germany. He received his PhD Agricultural Sciences from the University of Hohenheim, Germany and Master of Philosophy in Applied Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has extensive working experience at the National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi, and Centre for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany.
Venue: UNU-MERIT conference room, 4th floor, Keizer Karelplein 19, 6211 TC, Maastricht
Date: 04 September 2008
Time: 16:00 - 17:00 CEST