Economic Standpoint of Transgenic Cotton Development

Over a decade after GM crops such transgenic cottons were first commercialized among smallholders in the developing world, there now exist a considerable body of evidence to show that their impacts have been mixed, variable, differentiated and contingent on an array of agro-ecological, socio economic and institutional factors. The proponent and opponent GM crops have pointed the individual studies that support their view and clearly there is much contradiction. Therefore, it is timely to review the evidence of socio economic impacts of GM cotton based on the body evidence to see whether there are pattern across space and time. In this book, I want to explore the gap that exist between the underlying evidence, which reveals the complex impacts particularly in economic benefits among smallholders farmers and ambiguous benefits of GM cotton both in developed country and developing country, and the optimistic way in which that evidence has been interpreted and represented. The review presented here extends the existing literature by considering many countries and by focusing on a wide scope of literature. This book is precisely an attempt in that direction.