Michele C. Marra, North Carolina State University, Box 8109 Dept. Agricultural and Resource Economics, NCSU, Raleigh, NC 27695-8109 and Steven W. Martin, Delta Research and Extension Center, PO Box 69, Stoneville, MS 38776.
Beginning with Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin in 1793, cotton production in the U.S. has experienced many milestone advances over the last 200 years. Some of those were mechanized technological advances such as the cotton gin and mechanical harvesters and others were scientific advances such as Boll Weevil Eradication (BWE) and transgenic cultivars that, in some cases, revolutionized the industry and, in other cases, saved the industry from further declines. Many scientific and research studies have analyzed and measured the effects of these innovations on cotton production. None however, have sought input from the people involved in the day-to-day operation of cotton farms as to their opinions on: (a) the innovations most beneficial to them and (b) innovations they believe will be important to them in the future. Interviews with experts involved in cotton production at the 2007 Beltwide Cotton Conferences suggested that the most important innovations in the last decade were transgenic varieties, BWE, cotton breeding and harvesting equipment. Producer responses to a survey conducted in February 2007 confirmed the Beltwide results. Survey respondents ranked the Roundup Ready® trait as the number one innovation over the last ten years. Transgenic varieties as a whole, the Boll Weevil Eradication program, and improved cotton germplasm ranked statistically as high as the Roundup Ready® trait. Slight differences were reported by smaller farmers who ranked new harvesting technologies higher than larger producers and by farmers in the Delta who ranked Boll Weevil Eradication lower than the other regions surveyed.
