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Can GM-technologies help the poor? The impact Bt cotton in the Makhathini Flats of KwaZulu-Natal
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2003
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The results of a two-year survey of smallholders in Makhathini Flats, KwaZulu-Natal show that farmers who adopted Bt cotton in 1999-2000 benefited according to all the measures used. Higher yields and lower chemical costs outweighed higher seed costs, giving higher gross margins. These measures showed negative benefits in 1998-99, which conflicts with continued adoption, but stochastic efficiency frontier estimation, which takes account of the labor saved, showed that adopters averaged 88% efficiency, as compared with 66% for the nonadopters. In 1999-2000, when late rains lowered yields, the gap widened to 74% for adopters and 48% for nonadopters. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.