Farmers' Practices In Using Cotton Varieties and Seeds: A Case In Hebei Province (China)

Farmers' practices in using cotton varieties and seeds:

A case in Hebei Province (China)

In the area of varieties and seeds, market liberalization is assumed to benefit to growers who could find most adapted varieties at competitive prices, at least in theory. There are nevertheless few empiric studies to assess the extent to which growers actually benefit, our communication is a contribution to compensate this lack of empiric studies.

Our communication deals with the specific case of Hebei Province, in the North of China, which appears to be an accurate location to observe how cotton growers react to a liberalized market of varieties and seeds resulting from the policy of licensing China Bt genes. The study we implemented was based upon four years of surveys to capture farmers' practices in using varieties and seeds, as well as their feelings about the Bt-cotton effectiveness and profitability.

Results show that growers seldom used a single variety although they grew on quite small farm holdings. About 42% of the variety names pointed out by cotton growers could not be found in official lists of varieties. Among the varieties for which we have clarified the nature and origin, 20% were not Bt-cotton. Farmers did not systematically renew cotton seeds annually. A substantial share of cotton growers were unhappy with seed price (62.3% of all growers), with seed quality (43.3%) and with Bt-cotton effectiveness (36.1%). Yield is negatively affected by the seed cost, but positively by the number of varieties used by growers. Wholly speaking, competitive markets of varieties and seeds lead to mixed effects, with several negative effects which would amplify if no better information is organized towards cotton growers.

Keywords: Cotton; Biotechnologies; China; varieties; seeds; information

JEL : Q12; Q16; 033