Economic Analysis of Organic and Bt Farming of Cotton in Erode District of Tamil Nadu

Increasing awareness towards health and environmental issues associated with the intensive use of chemical inputs has led to alternate forms of agriculture. Organic farming is one among the production methods that are supportive of the environment. The other being the Bt farming which modifies the genetical make up of a plant by introducing genes of the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis. This makes the plant produce an insecticide that prevents bollworms from feeding on it thereby reducing the application of pesticides. However pests often develop resistance, making it necessary to use pesticides again and again thus increasing the financial risk of farmers. In order to compare these two extreme forms of agriculture, a survey was made on organic and Bt cotton farms in Erode district of Tamil Nadu to ascertain the benefits in terms of technical efficiency and cost and returns. The study revealed that organic farms were more technically efficient and in terms of cost and returns, organic farms provided higher net profit to farmers compared to Bt farms.