Dokumen - Tips - Imrb Report Dec 2006

Bt cotton cultivation in
Bt
India
A report to understand the awareness, perception and acceptability of
cotton seeds among cotton growing
farmers
December 2006
Prepared For: All India Crop Biotechnology Association (AICBA)
Prepared By: Business & Industrial Research Division, IMRB

International
1

Table of Contents
1 Introduction............................................................................................................................................. 4
1.1 Bt Cotton in India............................................................................................................................ 4
1.2 Need for research ............................................................................................................................ 5
2 Objectives of the study............................................................................................................................ 6
3 Research Methodology ........................................................................................................................... 9
3.1 DATA COLLECTION METHODOLOGY ................................................................................... 9
3.1.1 Module 1 : Quantitative survey with farmers ......................................................................... 9
3.1.2 Module 2 : In-depth interviews with Farmers and other stakeholders.................................. 11
3.2 DATA ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY....................................................................................... 11
3.2.1 Methods of Segmentation ..................................................................................................... 11
3.2.2 Key analysis techniques used................................................................................................ 13
4 Cotton farming practices and farmer distress ....................................................................................... 14
4.1 Crop cycles per year...................................................................................................................... 14
4.2 Land utilization for cotton ............................................................................................................ 15
4.3 Distribution of farmers among ‘Rain fed’ and ‘Irrigated’ area..................................................... 16
4.4 Reasons for financial distress among cotton growing farmers ..................................................... 17
5 Awareness related insights.................................................................................................................... 19
5.1 Awareness of Bt cotton seeds ....................................................................................................... 19
5.2 Awareness of certification among Bt cotton brands ..................................................................... 19
5.3 Sources of awareness of Bt cotton brands .................................................................................... 21
5.3.1 Sources of awareness about existence / availability of Bt cotton seeds ............................... 21
5.3.2 Sources of awareness of certification ................................................................................... 22
5.4 Awareness of Bt cotton brands ..................................................................................................... 23
5.4.1 ‘Unaided’ recall - certified Bt cotton seeds .......................................................................... 24
5.4.2 Aided recall - certified Bt cotton seeds................................................................................. 25
5.4.3 Unaided recall - non-certified Bt cotton seeds...................................................................... 26
6 Purchase Behaviour of Cotton Farmers ................................................................................................ 29
6.1 Purchase related insights............................................................................................................... 29
6.1.1 Sources of Purchases during current crop cycle ................................................................... 29
6.1.2 Purchase process at the seed shop......................................................................................... 30
6.1.3 Source of finances used for sourcing total expenditure ........................................................ 31
6.1.4 Percentage distribution of the total expenditure from various sources................................. 32
6.1.5 Interest rates charged by various entities financing expenditure .......................................... 33
6.2 Bt Cotton seed usage related insights ........................................................................................... 35
6.2.1 Number of Bt cotton seed brands used during current crop cycle........................................ 35
6.2.2 Top 3 Seed companies providing certified Bt cotton brands ................................................ 36
7 Perception, importance of factors and satisfaction ............................................................................... 37
7.1 Category Imagery.......................................................................................................................... 37
7.1.1 Maharastra............................................................................................................................. 37
7.1.2 Gujarat................................................................................................................................... 39
7.1.3 Madhya Pradesh.................................................................................................................... 41
7.1.4 Andhra Pradesh..................................................................................................................... 43
7.1.5 TN-Karnataka ....................................................................................................................... 45
2

7.2 Importance of attributes and satisfaction ...................................................................................... 47

7.2.1 Overall satisfaction levels with various seed categories....................................................... 47
7.2.2 Distribution of attributes, across ‘Satisfaction – Importance’ matrix................................... 48
8 Cost Economics & Productivity............................................................................................................ 51
8.1 Number of sprays of pesticide for Non-Bt cotton seeds ............................................................... 51
8.2 Number of sprays of pesticide per acre......................................................................................... 53
8.2.1 Ordinary Non-hybrid seed .................................................................................................... 53
8.2.2 Hybrid non-Bt and Bt cotton seeds ....................................................................................... 54
8.3 Productivity expectation per acre for various seed categories...................................................... 55
9 Intention to purchase and likelihood to recommend............................................................................. 56
9.1 Intention to purchase – Certified Bt cotton and certified Bt fruits/vegetables ............................. 57
9.2 Likelihood to recommend – Bt cotton and Bt fruits/vegetables ................................................... 58
10 Conclusions....................................................................................................................................... 59
11 Annexure........................................................................................................................................... 62
11.1 Newspaper reading habits ............................................................................................................. 62
11.2 Popular television channels........................................................................................................... 65
11.3 Number of Bt cotton seed brands used during current crop cycle................................................ 66
11.4 Satisfaction on the factors with respect to usage of various cotton seed categories..................... 67
11.4.1 Ordinary Non-hybrid cotton seeds........................................................................................ 67
11.4.2 Hybrid Non-Bt cotton seeds.................................................................................................. 68
11.4.3 Bt cotton seeds ...................................................................................................................... 69
11.5 Unaided recall for Top 10 certified Bt cotton seed companies/brands ......................................... 70
11.6 Aided recall for top 5 certified Bt cotton brands .......................................................................... 71
3

1 Introduction
The crop production technology where Genetic engineering is applied to industrial agriculture, with
crops generally bred to be herbicide-resistant or insect-resistant is commonly referred to as genetically
modified (GM) crop.
"Genetic Engineering" is the technique by which heritable material, which does not usually occur nor
will occur naturally in the organism or cell concerned, generated outside the organism or the cell, is
inserted into the said cell or organism. It refers to the formation of new combinations of genetic
material by incorporation of a cell into a host cell, where they occur naturally (self-cloning) as well as
modification of an organism or in a cell by deletion and removal of parts of the heritable material.
Bt Cotton is a genetically engineered form of natural cotton. The main advantage of utilizing
biotechnology in agriculture are the possibilities of increase in productivity through the use of newer
varieties that possess properties such as resistance to pests, diseases, and other stressful conditions
like drought, salinity, or water logging.
The above benefits can be imparting to the normal crop through the transfer of a gene from Bacillus
Thuringiensis (Bt) into target plants e.g. cotton by modern biotech methods.
1.1 Bt Cotton in
India
Bt Cotton, the first GM crop, had been introduced in India after six years of experimentation and trials.
The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), in its 32nd meeting, held on March 26, 2002,
made the landmark decision of approving cultivation of Bt cotton in India
It has been more than 4 years since Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), in its 32nd
meeting on March 26, 2002, approved Bt cotton crop cultivation. There have been mixed responses
towards productivity and crop success. This has been largely because of lack of understanding of
what Bt cotton crop can do and what it can’t. Also, mismatch in the understanding towards proper
cultivation practices in Bt cotton fields has also led to the disappointment to the farmers in some areas
of the cotton growing belt.

1.2 Need for

research
Several studies pertaining to Bt cotton have been done since its inception in India. There is a need to
evaluate parameters like awareness, perception, reaction towards & acceptability of Bt Cotton crop on
a periodical basis. Also, it is essential to identify whether farmers are aware of the proper information
about Bt cotton so that they can exploit the benefits provided by it. Since Bt technology can be applied
to other food products as well, the need was sensed to evaluate the acceptability of these food
products in rural India. Secondly, there has been a mixed response towards increase in the cotton
production and crop success with the usage of Bt cotton seed in India. The farmers’ hue and cry
against Bt-cotton crop failure in some parts of India has heightened the controversy and the crop has
gained negative publicity.
With the above objectives in mind All India Crop Biotechnology Association (AICBA) commissioned
this study to IMRB International to avail its research based consultancy. The following pages present
the study objectives, information areas, methodology and findings from the extensive research
exercise.
5

2 Objectives of the study
The study was commissioned with the following objective in mind:
1. To broadly understand the profile and farming practices of cotton growing farmers in the
selected state clusters and to identify the factors causing financial distress among the cotton
growing farmers
2. To estimate the awareness of Bt Cotton category of seeds and various certified and non-
certified Bt cotton brands
3. To understand the purchase behaviour and the importance of various purchase criteria for
cotton seeds among farmers
4. To gauge the perception of and satisfaction with ordinary, hybrid and Bt cotton seeds on the
identified purchase criteria
5. To compare the cost economics for certified Bt cotton seeds with ordinary and hybrid seed
categories
6. To determine the likelihood to purchase/ continue using Bt cotton seeds and Genetically
Modified fruits and vegetables by cotton farmers in the future
7. To determine the media consumption habits of cotton growing farmers in the selected state
clusters
In the conclusion, we have also provided the insights into the overall state-on-ground of Bt cotton
seeds in India.
The above objectives have been addressed by answering the following issues:-
1. To broadly understand the profile and farming practices of cotton growing farmers in the selected
state clusters and to identify the factors causing financial distress among the cotton growing
farmers
a. Crop cycles per year
b. Land utilization for cotton
c. Distribution of farmers between ‘Rain fed’ and ‘Irrigated’ area
6

d. Reasons for financial distress among cotton growing farmers
2. To estimate the awareness of Bt Cotton category of seeds and various certified and non-certified Bt
cotton brands
a. Awareness of Bt cotton seeds
b. Awareness of certification among Bt cotton brands
c. Sources of awareness about certification among Bt cotton brands
d. Sources of awareness about availability of various Bt brands
e. Brand Awareness
i. Top of Mind (TOM) & Spontaneous recall for top 3 Seed companies for certified Bt
cotton
ii. Aided recall for top 3 Seed companies providing certified Bt cotton brands
iii. Aided recall for top 3 non-certified Bt cotton brands across clusters
3. To understand the purchase behaviour of various purchase criteria for cotton seeds among farmers
a. Sources of Purchases during current crop cycle
b. Purchase process at the seed shop
c. Source of finances used for sourcing total expenditure
d. Percentage distribution of the total expenditure from various sources
e. Interest rates charged by various entities financing expenditure
f. Number of Bt cotton seed brands used during current crop cycle
g. Usage of the brands from top 3 Seed companies providing certified Bt cotton brands
4. To gauge the perception of and importance and satisfaction with ordinary, hybrid and Bt cotton
seeds on the identified purchase criteria
a. Correspondence maps & top 2 boxes for various factors
b. Importance of the factors
c. Overall satisfaction levels – top 2 boxes with various seed categories
d. ‘Satisfaction – Importance’ matrix for various factors:-
5. To compare the cost economics for certified Bt cotton seeds with ordinary and hybrid seed
categories
a. Number of sprays of pesticide already used or planning to use in the current crop cycle for:
7

b. Cost per acre on inputs (seed, pesticide and fertilizer) & labour for the following seed
category cultivated on a maximum area:-
c. Individual break up for seed, pesticide, fertilizer and labour for:-
d. Productivity expectation per acre for the entire crop cycle for the following cotton seed
categories (cultivated in the maximum area):-
6. To determine the likelihood to purchase/ continue using Bt cotton seeds and Genetically Modified
fruits and vegetables by cotton farmers in the future
a. Intention to purchase – Bt cotton and Bt fruits/vegetables
b. Likelihood to recommend – Bt cotton and Bt fruits/vegetables
7. To determine the media consumption habits of cotton growing farmers in the selected state clusters
a. Newspaper reading habits
b. Most popular television channels
c. Most popular radio stations
8

3 Research Methodology
3.1 DATA COLLECTION METHODOLOGY
To explore the research objectives outlined earlier, two pronged research methodology was suggested.
The two modules for the research were as follows:-
3.1.1 Module 1 : Quantitative survey with

farmers
In India, out of the 3 zones i.e. Central / Western, Southern and Northern, cotton crop is largely
cultivated in the Central / Western and Southern zones. The biggest cotton growing clusters were
identified across these two zones covering 6 states. Within the clusters, the representation of rich as
well as poor farmers was ensured. All the respondents were key decision-makers for seed purchase.
A minimum quota of interviews was set for both Bt cotton as well as non-Bt cotton growing farmers. At
a state level, major cotton growing districts were identified. Within a district, 5-8 cotton growing clusters
(villages) were selected.
The sample size for survey among farmers was distributed keeping the following considerations in
mind:-
o Coverage of biggest cotton growing areas across Western / Central and Southern Zone
o Area under cotton crop cultivation by the farmer
o Category of cotton seed cultivated by the farmer
o Significant random coverage of respondent at the sub-cluster (district) level to ensure
randomness within each sub-cluster.
A total sample size of 911 respondents was distributed across six states in the following manner:-
Area under Western / Central Zone Southern Zone

cotton/
No.of Andhra
Maharastra Gujarat Madhya
farmers Pradesh Pradesh Tamil Nadu Karnataka
met
1 – 2 acres 49 55 56 54 46 34
2.1 – 5
acres 81 71 62 81 23 33
5.1 – 1 0
acres 37 43 45 38 15 23
More than
10 acres 15 19 17 8 6 0
Total 182 188 180 181 90 90
Table 1 : Sample Size distribution by area under cotton cultivation
Five geographical clusters were formed after merging the data from respondents in Tamil Nadu and
Karnataka states.
9

The sample size distribution across six states by the ordinary non-hybrid seeds, hybrid non-Bt seeds
and Bt cotton seed users was as f ollows:-
Type of Western / Cen tral Zone Sout hern Zone

farmer/ No.
Andhra Tamil
o f f arm er s M ah ara st ra G uj ara t Ma dh ya
Pradesh Pradesh Nadu Karnataka
met
Ordinary
non-hybrid 4 0 32 33 15 30
user
Hybrid non Bt
cotton user 104 88 56 37 37 16
Bt cotton
users 129 110 104 143 42 49
Total 182 188 180 181 90 90
Table 2 : Sample Size distribution by Ordinary, Hybrid and Bt cotton seed categories
Selection of sub-clusters within each state
Within each state, major cotton growing sub-clusters (at district level) were identified in the f ollowing
manner:-
o District level contribution in the cotton production of the state.

o Geographical spread within the state
o Production of cotton at the state level
o Importance of the state with respect to addressing the problem like financial distress and the
number of cases of such financially distress families in the state
o Minimum of 180 respondents per cluster so as to achieve the required confidence of 95% (+/-
7%) for reporting the data at the cluster level
o The sample size in each state (as shown in Table 2) was equally distributed across sub-clusters
(with a variation of 5% percent).
At the state level, the following sub-clusters (district) were covered:-
Maharastra Gujarat Madhya Pradesh

Buldhana Baroda Dhar
Yeotmal Rajkot Khargone
Jalgaon Bhavnagar Khandwa
Akola Jamnagar Harda
Wardha Khera
Nagpur
Tamil Nadu Karnataka Andhra Pradesh
Salem Bijapur Warangal
Coimbatore Gadag Guntur
Kurnool
Adilabad
Table 3 : Sample Size distribution : Sub-clusters (districts) at the state level
Overall, 23 districts were covered across 6 states.
10

3.1.2 Module 2 : In-depth interviews with Farmers and other

stakeholders
In-depth Interviews were included in the research design with the following considerations in mind:-
o To obtain a category understanding of Bt Cotton
o To obtain insights into the issues pertaining to the financial distress of farmers
o To design a quantitative questionnaire so that the insights get captured correctly
Largely, interviews were conducted with cotton growing farmers across 3 states. However, 5 interviews
were conducted with other stakeholders such as seed shops, scientists and professors.
The sample size distribution of depth interview with farmers was as follows:-
Zones Covered States Covered Sample Size
Maharastra 14
Western / Central Zone
Gujarat 5
Southern Zone Andhra Pradesh 5
TOTAL 24
Table 4 : Depth Interviews with farmers
In addition, five interviews, two with seed shops and three with Scientists and Professors were also
conducted.
3.2 DATA ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY
3.2.1 Methods of
Segmentation
As mentioned under section ‘Data Collection Methodology’ earlier, the data so collected has been
segmented according to the following headings:
State clusters – The various state clusters are as follows:

Central zone which includes Maharastra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh
Southern zone which includes Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka
The data from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka has been merged and reported under one head.
Farmer classification – Farmers have been classified and reported as follows:

o Those using as Bt Cotton
o Those not using Bt Cotton. These farmers have been further classified into ordinary cotton seed
users and hybrid non-Bt Cotton users
If a farmer has cultivated Bt cotton in an area more than or equal to the area under non-Bt hybrid and
ordinary non-hybrid seed, he would fall under ‘Bt cotton’ farmer category and vice-versa.
11

3.2.1 .1 Key terms used i n the

report
Rainfed area:- Areas under cotton crop cultivation where farmers are dependent solely at the mercy of
rain for irrigation come under rainfed areas.
Irrigated area:- Areas under cotton crop cultivation where irrigation facilities are available e.g. farmland
having well, bore-well, irrigation through canal system. Farmers of irrigated area can irrigate their lands
whenever need for the same arises.
Western / Central Zone:- For segmentation purposes, the cotton belt across India is divided into 3
zones:- Central, Southern & North zones. Three states i.e. Maharastra, Gujarat & Madhya Pradesh
comprise of central zone. Central zone contributes maximum to cotton crop cultivation across India.
Southern Zone:- Southern Zone comprises of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu states.
This zone comes second as far as cotton production in India is concerned.
Bt certified:- This refers to the category of Bt-cotton seed hybrids that have been approved in India for
th
various zones as on 16 June 2006 (list of hybrids and its seed companies have been taken from fact
sheet of ISAAA – International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications provided by the
client).
Bt non-certified:- This refers to the category of Bt-cotton seed hybrids that are not certified by the
central and state agencies for safer use in I ndia. These seeds are sold illegally in the market. The list of
commonly present non-certified Bt seeds across the two zones covered in this study has been provided
by the client’s associate companies. Some hybrids that have been approved by state bodies without the
approval of GEAC (Genetic Engineering Approval Committee) have also been considered under this
category. In other words, any Bt hybrid not falling under the fact sheet of ISAAA of the approved hybrid
th
in India as on 16 June 2006 has been considered under Bt non-certified seed category.
Category of seed cultivated in the maximum area:- Certain insights e.g. cost economics,
productivity estimates for the current crop cycle and number of sprays of pesticides etc have been
captured specifically for the category of seed cultivated in the maximum area to compare the cost-
benefits of one category with another one. It means the category of seed, out of 4 categories i.e.
Ordinary non-hybrid, non-Bt hybrid, Bt certified and Bt not-certified, cultivated under the maximum area
during current cotton crop cycle.
Top of Mind (TOM) recall:- This refers to the recall of the single brand / company (of a particular
category) that comes to respondents’ mind first, as soon as the specified category is mentioned.
Spontaneous recall:- This parameter measures the awareness levels about brands / companies (of a
particular category) that comes after TOM recall, if he / she is asked to recall brands / companies
further.
Unaided recall: - Together Top of Mind (TOM) recall and spontaneous recall form unaided recall. This
parameter refers to the cumulative awareness levels of the brands / companies when the respondent is
not exposed to some stimulus / reference material.
Aided recall: - This included unaided recall. It refers to the recall of the brands / companies (of a
particular category) when the respondent is exposed to some stimulus material (like show cards,
12

posters etc) along with the unaided recall.
3.2.2 Key analysis techniques

used
Correspondence Mapping: This technique is used to map the category perception with respect to the
various attitudinal statements so that the correlation between the two can be easily comprehendible.
The nearness of various statements with each category and the quadrant in which these categories and
statements lie (in a two dimensional plane) tells about degree and type (whether positive or negative) of
correlation the statement has with respective categories.
Regression Analysis: This is a method for determining the association between a dependent variable
and one or more independent variables. This statistical technique is used for assessing the factor
contributing the most to the overall satisfaction with the usage of a particular seed category.
13

4 Cotton farming practices and farmer distress
Prior to understanding the awareness, perception and purchase behaviour of the cotton growing
farmers for cotton seeds, it is essential to understand the farming practices of these cotton farmers.
This section highlights the farmer profiling related issues like number of crop cycles per year (cultivated
in the cotton growing region across various clusters), Land utilization per year for growing cotton and
cotton growing land distribution under ‘rain-fed’ and ‘irrigated’ areas.
The reasons for financial distress among cotton growing farmers were also validated in the quantitative
phase. Insights related to the same have been mentioned in the section below.
4.1 Crop cycles per

year 2% 3%
3% 1% 3% 2% 4%
100%
7% 13%
80% 36% 37%

40% 48%
60% 76%
90% 86%
40% 57% 62% 60%

48%
20%
23%
0%
Gujarat (188) AP (181) Maharastra TN & MP (180) Non-Bt Bt

(182) Karnataka Cotton Farmer (394) Cotton
Farmer (517)
(180)
One Two Three
The figure above shows 90% of the cotton growing farmers in Gujarat have single crop cycle against
57% of the cotton farmers in Maharastra. It also indicates the longer tenure of cotton crop for most of
the farmers in Gujarat, since as high as 90% of them have a single crop cycle. This phenomenon, along
with other factors like ‘ more irrigated area’ (described later in this section) explains better productivity of
cotton crop in Gujarat (described in the ‘Cost economy’ section) when compared with other states. In
Madhya Pradesh cluster, 76% of cotton growing farmers have 2 crop cycles per year, which in the
highest percentage for 2 crop cycles across clusters.
Looking at the crop cycle distribution across Non-Bt and Bt cotton farmers (as classified in Section
4.2.1 ), largely distribution of number of crop cycles per year is similar. However, Bt cotton growing
farmers have slight edge over non-Bt cotton farmers with it comes to two and three crop cycles per
years with 37% and 3% of the farmers respectively cultivating it.
14

Crop cycles per year
1% 3% 2% 6% 7%
100%
80% 36% 34% 39% 39% 42%
60%
40%
63% 63% 60% 54% 52%
20%
0%
1 - 2 A cre s ( 29 4 ) 2 . 1 - 5 A cre s ( 3 51 ) 5 . 1 - 7 A cr es (1 2 6) 7. 1 - 1 0 A cr es (7 5) M o re th a n 10 A cre s ( 65 )
One crop Two crops Three crops
Looking the number of crop cycles per year by area under cotton crop cultivation in current crop cycle,
42% of the bigger farmers (10 acre plus cotton cultivation) have 2 crop cycles per year.
4.2 Land utilization for

cotton
Another important aspect towards understanding the farming practices is understanding the extent of
land utilization per year for growing cotton in the cotton growing belt across clusters.
Bt Cotton Farmer (517) 20% 65% 7% 7%
Non-Bt Cotton Farmer (394) 21% 64% 8% 8%
MP (180) 72% 28%
Maharastra (182) 27% 65% 7%
4% 1%
Gujarat (188) 53% 8% 35%
1%
3%
TN & Karnataka (180) 74% 21%
3%
3%
AP (181) 93% 0%
0% 20% 4 0% 60% 80%

100% Percentage
1 - 5 months 6 - 8 months 9 - 10 months 11 - 12

months
The figure above show that in Gujarat, 35% of the farmers utilize their land (including lease one) for
growing cotton for 11 - 12 months a year. 72% of the farmers in Madhya Pradesh utilize their land for
cotton cultivation for 1 – 5 months a year. This largely substantiates the prevalence of 2 cotton crop
cycles per year phenomena in this state. In Maharastra, 73% farmers cultivate cotton crop for 6 – 8
months or more in a typical year.
15

4.3 Distribution of farmers among ‘Rain fed’ and ‘Irrigated’

area
Understanding the profile of cotton farmers who were surveyed in the cotton growing belt across the
clusters (as shown in Table 1, 2 and 3 of Section 4.1.1 ) would not be complete without looking at the
distribution of the sample size between ‘rain fed’ and ‘irrigated’ area (as defined in Section 4.2.1 ).
100%
14% 12% 7%
24% 19% 6%
80%
11% 34% 46% 25%

41%
60%
86%
40%
65%
56% 54%
46% 47%
20%
8%
0%
All (911) MP (180) Maharashtra AP (181) TN & Karnataka Gujarat (188)
(182) (180)
Only Rainfed Only Irrigated Both
The figure above shows as high as 86% of cotton growing farmers in Gujarat cultivate cotton in only
‘irrigated’ area. This explains the high yield per acre in the Gujarat cluster.
65% and 56% of the cotton farmers from MP and Maharastra clusters respectively cultivate cotton only
in the rain fed area. This could be one of the key reasons for lower productivity (yield) in these states.
16

4.4 Reasons for financial distress among cotton growing

farmers
Recently, farmers’ raised hue and cry in the backdrop of cotton crop failure in some parts of the cotton
growing belts. The reason for crop failure was cited to be the usage of Bt Cotton seeds which led to
increase in input cost, which in turn, led to financial distress. There was a need to address the issue of
financial distress and identifying major underlying reasons behind it in the cotton growing belt across
the clusters. The findings are as follows:
100%
30% 15%
80% 49% 40% 49%
60%
73%
60%
7%
62%
7%
40% 56%
21% 44% 35%

46%
20% 10%
12%
4% 5%
12% 14% 10%
1% 4% 4% 11% 9% 9%
0%
AP (18 1) Ma hara st ra (18 2) T N & Ka rna t aka MP (1 80 ) Gu ja rat (1 88 ) N on -Bt C ot t on Bt C ot t on F a rmer
(1 80 ) F arme r (39 4) (5 17 )
Less ‘Minimum Support Price’

High input costs
Less availability of fertilizer
Any other (including less fertility, lacking alternative occupation)
73% of cotton producing farmers from Andhra Pradesh and 60% of cotton producing farmers from
Maharastra believe less ‘minimum support price’ fixed by the Government to be the most important
reason for financial distress among cotton growing farmers.
62% of cotton producing farmers in Gujarat followed by 56% of cotton producing farmers in Madhya
Pradesh believe higher input cost as the most important reason for the financial distress.
Interestingly, in Maharastra, that accounted for 14.75% of cotton crop production in India in 2005-06
(Source: Cotton Advisory Board), only 21% of the farmers believe higher input cost to be the most
important reason for acute financial distress. Some secondary reports and newspaper articles
mentioned the ‘Vidharbha’ region of Maharastra as the epicenter of suicides in cotton growing belt of
India and the primary reason was cited as financial distress caused by high cost of inputs. It can be
concluded from the above chart that higher cost of inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and pesticides is not
the primary reason responsible for financial distress among cotton growing farmers. On the contrary,
farmers have cited “Less Minimum Support Price” as the primary reason for financial distress.
17

According to one of the farmers from Sevagram, Wardha (in Maharastra)

“There was a suicidal case in 'Waipadh - Dorli' village, around 20-25 Kms from Sevagram and the
reason highlighted was 'Bt cotton crop failure'. But the actual reason was something else. Largely
suicides happen because of:-
1. Lesser savings, largely due to improper financial planning
2. Depression / tension due to family/personal conflicts
3. Loan from Bank gets waived off after committing suicide and the farmer considers it as an
easier exit option
4. Family gets ex-gratia payment of Rs 1 Lacs.”
Other reasons for financial distress / suicides that were significantly highlighted during in-depth
Interviews with farmers are:-
o Inability to pay back bank loans of the previous year that debars eligibility for the crop loan for
next year. Even those who pay back or don’t default are not given the credit to the extent
required (for more information on this area, refer to ‘Sources of Finance’ under the Purchase
Behavior section). The reason largely lies in the failure of cooperative system in the rural areas
that has led to cash crunch situation among these cooperative banks. When farmers do not get
full credit on their finance requirements from these cooperative banks, they resort to other
available options like approaching money lenders.
o Sole dependence on agriculture is another prominent reason reflected during qualitative phase.
The situation gets worse when crop fails for more than 1 year.
“Failure of Bt crop is a ruse for financial distress. Farmers are not proactive especially in the
adverse weather conditions. When crop fail, proactive farmer takes advantage of 2nd crop. Major
problem is finance.”
- One of the farmers from the cotton growing belt of Dakor district in Gujarat
“..I know a person who committed suicide by Vish paijan (consumption of poison) in 'Jorman –
Padershatil’ village of Yavatmal. The reason for suicide was inability to pay last years' Rs 15000.
On the top of that he took Rs 20000 this year. Crop failed due to flood this year. He has a family
with 3 children. He could not incur family expense let aside the bank repayment.”
- One of the farmers from the cotton growing belt of Yavatmal district in Maharastra
“...unavailability of credit 'on time' is leading to lesser crop productivity, which in turn is leading to
suicidal cases across the r egion.”
- One of the farmers from ‘Vadgiri’ village of Yavatmal district in Mahara stra
“…. this village is less prone to suicide as here farmers have two occupations - farming and cattle
farming (milk selling).”
- One of the farmers from ‘Vadgiri’ village of Yavatmal district in Maharastra
18

5 Awareness related insights
Determining the awareness levels of Bt cotton seeds category as a whole and certain other issues like
awareness of certification levels and distinction of certified seed with non-certified seeds was one of the
key objectives of this study. Also, because awareness precedes the purchase process, it is paramount
that cotton growing farmers should be aware of the correct information to extract better mileage out of
it.
In this regard, this section starts with the awareness of Bt cotton as a category, and further drills down
to the issues like awareness of certification, unaided (Top of Mind and Spontaneous) and aided
awareness for various certified and non-certified brands across cotton growing farmer clusters.
5.1 Awareness of Bt cotton

seeds
Maharastra Gujarat MP AP TN & Karnataka

Base 182 188 180 181 180
Aware of Bt cotton 100% 100% 100% 100% 70%

seeds
Not aware of Bt 0% 0% 0% 0% 30%

cotton seeds
Awareness levels for ‘Bt cotton’ category as a whole was found to be very high across all the clusters.
The four clusters having cent percent awareness levels were Maharastra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh
and Andhra Pradesh. In TN-Karnataka cluster, awareness level of Bt cotton category was an issue with
around 30% of the farmers not even aware about the Bt cotton category. In Tamil Nadu, awareness
levels were relatively higher in Salem cluster than in Coimbatore cluster.
5.2 Awareness of certification among Bt cotton

brands
Since the spurious seed brands are easily available under Bt cotton seed category across the clusters,
it becomes very important that farmers should be aware of Bt cotton certification or Government
approval so that they can easily distinguish between certified seed brands and non-certified brands. It is
also essential that cotton farmers should know that benefits claimed by Bt cotton can only be accrued if
they are purchasing certified cotton seeds.
19

100% 1% 4% 9%
13%
80%
47%
60%
99% 96% 91% 87%
40%
53%
20%
0%
Gujarat (188) Maharastra (182) MP (180) AP (181) TN & Karnataka (126)
Aw are of certification Not aw are of certification
The figure above shows that Gujarat and Maharastra lead as far as awareness levels of certification of
Bt cotton seeds is concerned. Awareness levels of certification of Bt cotton seeds (among those who
are aware of Bt cotton) are comparatively lower in Tamil Nadu & Karnataka cluster at 53%. Hence,
there is a need to provide special focus towards certification related marketing initiatives in TN-
Karnataka cluster so that awareness about certification in this cluster can be brought on par with
Central zone clusters.
Southern Zone (83)
26%
74%
Aware of some Bt cotton brands sold without bill
Not aware of some Bt cotton brands sold without bill
Among those farmers who are not aware of certification of Bt cotton brands, in Southern Zone, 74% of
the farmers are aware that some Bt cotton brands are sold without bill. However, these farmers are not
directly aware that some brands are certified whereas others are not. In the western zone, since the
base of the cotton farmers not aware of certification is very less (less than 30 respondents out of 550
respondents), data for the same has not been given. However, most of these farmers are aware of the
fact that some brand are sold without bill.
To sum up, it can be said that awareness building of certification of Bt cotton seeds is not an issue in
the central zone but it is required in the southern zone especially in the TN-Karnataka cluster.
20

5.3 Sources of awareness of Bt cotton

brands
Sources of awareness can be measured at two levels. Firstly, there are sources that have made the
farmers across various clusters aware of the existence of Bt cotton brands and their benefits. A step
ahead is the sources that made them aware about the certification related issues. During the study we
found that while some sources for these two levels of awareness were common, awareness from ‘seed
shops’ was found to be significantly present for making farmers aware about the existence of Bt cotton
brands and not about the certification levels of these brands. Tables below provide insights into these
issues.
5.3.1 Sources of awareness about existence / availability of Bt cotton

seeds
All Maharastra Gujarat MP AP TN &

Karnataka
Base : 911 18 2 188 180 181 180
Word of Mouth from other
94% 96% 91% 97% 96% 90%
farmers
Newspapers / Magazines 38%

84% 36% 9% 51% 9%
Owner / employee of the
82% 74% 96% 71%
seed shop 73% 92%
Television 31% 55% 46% 9% 37% 8%
Wall Paintings / Hoardings /

24% 49% 28% 27% 17% 1%
Posters
Point of purchase material

17% 41% 12% 19% 2%
e.g. danglers, posters etc 11%
Sales/Mktg personnel of
31% 38% 31% 15% 19% 52%
various seed companies
Radio 9% 16% 5% 5% 1% 17%
Melas / haaths or similar

initiatives by vaious 4% 12% 4% 3% 0% 2%
universities / bodies
Sarpanch / Agri
Development Officer / NGOs 13% 4% 11% 5% 5% 37%
/ University personnel
For brand awareness also, word of mouth from other f armers is the most prevalent source of
awareness. In Maharastra, 84% of the farmers become aware of various brands from Newspapers /
magazines.
In Gujarat & TN-Karnataka clusters, 96% and 92% of the farmers respectively are aware of various
brands from the owner / employee of the seed shop.
21

5.3.2 Sources of awareness of

certification
All Maharastra Gujarat MP AP TN &

Karnataka
Base : 748 174 187 163 157 67
Word of Mouth from other
93% 97% 93% 95% 97% 70%
farmers
Owner / employe e of the seed

80% 70% 96%
shop 77% 75% 82%
Newspapers / Magazines
45% 81% 43% 11% 55% 12%
Television 37% 61% 49% 12% 35% 4%
Sales / Marketing personnel of

32% 47% 33% 17% 20% 57%
various seed companies
Wall Paintings / Ho ardings /

27% 39% 31% 29% 18% 1%
Posters
Point of purchase material e.g.

17% 35% 11% 24% 3% 7%
danglers, posters etc
Radio 10% 24% 3% 10% 0% 13%
Melas / haaths etc by vaious

5% 14% 4% 6% 0% 0%
universities / bodies
Sarpanch / Agri Development
Officer / NGOs / University 11% 11% 9% 7% 6% 39%
personnel
Word of Mouth from other farmers is the most common source of awareness across all the clusters.
97% and 93% of the cotton farmers in Maharastra and Gujarat respectively have become aware of
certification from word of mouth.
In Maharastra and Andhra Pradesh, Newspaper / Magazine is also one of the important sources of
awareness for Bt cotton certification.
22

5.4 Awareness of Bt cotton

brands
After the awareness of category, certification aspects and sources, the study explored the un-aided
recall and aided recall (to define, refer to Section 4.2.1 ) for various seed companies. Most of the seed
companies providing certified Bt cotton seeds are known by the seed companies names although some
exceptions exist.
The segmentation consideration for classifying various seed companies and their brands during the
questionnaire preparation phase were as follows:-
o NCS – 145 and NCS – 207 brands of Nuziveedu Seed Company are fairly popular by the
names of ‘Bunny’ and ‘Mallika’ respectively. However, NCS brand (with all variants) from
Nuziveedu Seed Company has been taken as a single brand for brand recall.
o Brands from 14 seed companies have been classified under 19 heads. The reason for the same
is that the brands of some seed companies are known by two different names altogether e.g.
Mahyco seed company’s brands were found to be known with 2 different brands i.e. Mech and
MRC. During qualitative phase, generally, it was observed that farmers are not aware of the
‘number’ in the brand name except in some most popular brand like ‘Ankur-651’.
o During qualitative phase, farmers were also found to be aware of BG-I and BG-II classification
for the brands like Ajeet Seeds and Krishidhan. The same has been taken into consideration
while segmenting certified Bt cotton brands.
23

5.4.1 ‘Unaided’ recall - certified Bt cotton

seeds
The chart below shows top-3 certified Bt cotton seed companies across clusters as far as unaided
st
r ec al l is con ce rne d. Ank ur See d C om pa ny is 1 an d 2 nd mo st una ide d r ec all ed com pa ny in Ma har as tr a
(84%) and Gujarat (60%) respectively. Among AP cotton growing farmers, ‘TOM + Spontaneous’ recall
is highest for Rasi Seeds and Nuziveedu Seeds at 74% each. Rasi seeds are among the top 3 ‘unaided
recall’ companies across all the 5 clusters when it comes to the Bt cotton category recall among cotton
growing farmers.
84%
67%
Maharashtra (129) 54%
60%
73%
Gujarat (110) 45%
39%
81%
MP (104)
51%
74%
AP (143) 74%
31%
45%
TN-Karnataka (91)
31%
23%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Percentage
Ank ur Seeds (Ank ur 09 / 651)

Rasi Seeds (RCH - 2 / 20 / 111 / 118 / 138 / 144 / 368 / 371 / 377 / 708)
Nuziveedu Seeds (NCS - 145 (Bunny) / 207 (Mallika) / 913)
Vikram Seeds (VICH - 5 / 9 / 111 (Vikram Seeds))
Mahyco (Mech - 12 / 162 / 184)
Emergent Genetic s (Brahma Bt (31%))
24

5.4.2 Aided recall - certified Bt cotton

seeds
97%
92%
88%
86%
Gujarat (110) 80%
76%
92%
MP (104)
70%
59%
81%
AP (143)
87%
55%
71%
TN-Karnataka (91)
43%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Percentage
Ankur Seeds (Ankur 09 / 651)

Rasi Seeds (RCH - 2 / 20 / 111 / 118 / 138 / 144 / 368 / 371 / 377 / 708)
Vik ram Seeds (VICH - 5 / 9 / 111 (Vikram Seeds))
Mahyco (Mech - 12 / 162 / 184)
Emergent Genetics (Brahma Bt (31%))
Aided recall includes unaided recall along with the respondents recalling the brands when exposed to
some stimulus / show card.
The chart above highlights that when it comes to ‘aided recall’, Ankur seeds again is the leading
company with the presence in the top-3 seed companies across all the custers. It has the highest aided
recall in the two big clusters – Gujarat and Maharastra.
Rasi Seeds has the highest aided recall in Madhya Pradesh at 92% and Nuziveedu Seeds has the
highest aided recall in Andhra Pradesh at 87%
25

5.4.3 Unaided recall - non-certified Bt cotton

seeds
A large number of Non-certified Bt cotton brands were found present across various clusters. Most of
these were local / regional centric brands. The following charts present the top non-certified brands
aware of in each state cluster.
Gujarat
100%
Gujarat Farmers, Base: 110
80%
60%
40%
68% 58% 39%
20%
0%
Gujarat (110)
151 series i.e. Nav Bharat, New Bharat etc
Dhanlakshmi
Rakshak
In Gujarat cluster, among non-certified Bt cotton brand, 151 series i.e. Nav Bharat has the maximum
unaided recall of 68% followed by Dhanlakshmi at 58% and ‘Rakshak’ brand at 39%.
Maharastr
a
20%
Maharastra Farmers , Base: 129
15%
10%
5% 4% 3%
5%
0%
Maharashtra (129)
Brahma, not from Emergent Genetics

Dhanlaks hmi
Dollar
In Maharastra, unaided recall from the provided list of 40 non-certified brand is considerably less. Non-
certified ‘Brahma’ brand has the highest unaided recall at 5%, followed by Dhanlakshmi and Dollar at
4% and 3% unaided recall respectively.
26

Madhya Pradesh
50%
Madhya Pradesh Farmers, Base: 104
40%
27%
30%
20%
20% 13%
10%
0%
MP (104)
Om-3 Tiger Dollar
In MP, Om-3 brand has the highest unaided recall among the brands in the non-certified list, at 27%.
Tiger is another popular non-certified brand with the unaided brand recall at 20%, followed by Dollar at
13%.
Andhra Pradesh
50%
Andhra Pradesh Farmers, Base: 143
37% 30%
40%
30% 21%
20%
10%
0%
AP (143)
Brands , other than the lis t provided
Lakshi
In AP cluster, among non-certified Bt cotton brand, some other brands not present in the list of 40 major
non-certified brands provided by the client are fairly popular if seen as a whole. Cumulatively, brands
other than provided in the list have 37% unaided recall. Non-certified ‘Brahma’ brand is a popular brand
with 30% unaided recall, followed by ‘Lakshi’ with 21% of the AP cotton growing farmers recalling it at
the unaided level.
27

TN - Karnataka
50%
TN-Karnataka Farmers, Base: 91
40%
25% 22%
30%
14%
20%
10%
0%
TN-Karnataka (91)
Lakshi
Other than the lis t provided
In TN-Karnataka cluster, ‘Lakshi’ brand is the most popular brand among non-certified Bt cotton brands
at 25% unaided brand recall. Non certified ‘Brahma’ brand is the second most popular brand at 22%
unaided recall.
28

6 Purchase Behaviour of Cotton Farmers
This section includes the purchase behaviour and usage related insights covering the following:-
Purchase related insights:- Sources of purchase, purchase process, sources of finances used,
percentage distribution of total expenditure from these sources
Usage related insights:- Usage of top 3 certified Bt seed companies across the clusters.
6.1 Purchase related

insights
6.1.1 Sources of Purchases during current crop
cycle
95%
TN & Karnataka (180) 16%
2%
98%
AP (181) 2%
1%
99%
MP (180) 6%
97%
Gujarat (188) 7%
1%2%
96%
97%
All (911) 1% 8%
0% 2 0 % 4 0% 6 0 % 8 0% 1 0 0 %
Percentage
Private seed shops
Government distribution centers/seed shops
Exhibition/’haats’ etc organized by Universities/Departments
Any other
The graph above shows that across the states, farmers largely purchase cotton seeds from private
seed shops. These shopowners have good rapport with the farmers. A distant second source of
purchase is Government distribution centers / seed shops. It may be noted that the farmers in Tamil
Nadu/ Karnataka cluster have a very high prevalence of buying from Government distribution centers/
seed shops.
29

6.1.2 Purchase process at the seed shop
82%
Total (911) 37%
25%
1% 93%
MP (180) 13%
54%
1% 92%
Maharastra (182)
32%
1%
78%
Gujarat (188) 41%
15%
4%
75%
AP (181) 25%
1%
73%
TN-Karnataka (180) 76%

19%
0%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Percentage
Ask by brand of cotton seeds
Ask by seed company’s name
Ask for the shopkeeper’s / seller’s suggestion
Any other
By and large, farmers demand seeds by their brand name. Only in TN-Karnataka cluster, more
percentage of farmers, i.e. 76%, express their intention to purchase by seed company’s name than by
expressing it by the brand name.
30

6.1.3 Source of finances used for sourcing total

expenditure
It is important to understand source of finances for sourcing total expenditure incurrent during cotton
crop cycle in the light of interest charged by various sources. This shall help us better understand the
financial distress situation among cotton farmers across the clusters.
96%
Gujarat (188) 12%

2%
1%
1%
83%
TN & Karnataka 30%
(180) 36%
0% 13%
81%
Maharastra (182) 17% 68%

11%
7%
72%
MP (180) 34%
33%
9%
0%
24%
58%
AP (181)
45%
1% 46%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Percentage
Any other Credit from seed / fertilizer / pesticide shops

Loan from money lenders i.e. ‘sahukaars’ Loan from Banks / Cooperatives
Income from previous crop cycle
Only in Andhra Pradesh cluster, percentage of farmers sourcing expenditure from the savings of
previous year’s crop cycle is lesser than the percentage of farmers dependent upon loan providing
agencies.
In the Central and Southern zones:-

o Mean yearly rate of interest charged by the banks / cooperatives is 11% and 13% respectively
in the two zones.
o Yearly rate of interest charged by money lenders is around 45% and 30% respectively in the
two zones. Such a high interest rate is trapping the farmers in the vicious circle of debts. This, in
turn, is leading to higher number of suicides.
31

6.1.4 Percentage distribution of the total expenditure from various

sources
100%
18%
80%
46%
57% 57%
38%
60%
90%
40%
16% 39%
22% 21%
20%
20%
18% 8% 24%
9% 1% 4% 3%
3% 7%
0%
Gujarat (180) MP (180) TN & Karnataka Maharastra (181) AP (150)
(180)
Others Credit from seed/fertilizer/pes ticide shops

Loan from money lenders i.e. 'sahukaars' Loan from Banks / Cooperatives
Income from previous crop cycle
As shown in the graph above, cotton farmers from Gujarat source 90% of the expenditure incurred
during entire crop cycle from the income from previous crop cycle. This reveals their ‘ far-sightedness’
and better planning for expenditure.
Income from previous crop cycle contributes only 57% each out of the total expenditure during entire
crop cycle for the cotton growing farmers from Madhya Pradesh and TN-Karnataka.
In Andhra Pradesh, maximum contribution for the farmer’s crop cycle expenditure i.e. 38% comes from
banks / cooperatives.
32

6.1.5 Interest rates charged by various entities financing

expenditure
Interest rates per annum c harged by Banks
5% 3%
100%
7%
28% 24% 12%
80% 3% 39%
52% 3%
60%
32%
45%
40% 76% 37%
19%
29%
0%
20% 8%
24% 24%
12%
2% 2% 4%
0%
Maharas htra (123) Gujarat (22) MP (62) AP (105) TN-Karnataka (54)
More than 13% 11.1% - 13% 9.1% - 11% 7.1% - 9% Less than 7 %
Interest rates charged by banks are relatively lower with a mean value of 12% across clusters.
However, there are some cooperative banks charging interest rates more than 13% per annum,
especially in Madhya Pradesh where over 24% of the farmers taking loan from banks are paying more
than 13% interest rates per annum..
33

Interest rates per annum charged by Money lenders
100% 4% 6%
5% 4%
25%
80%
87%
60% 75%
90% 100%
40%
20%
4%
0%
Maharashtra (30) M P (59) AP (81) TN-Karnataka (65)
Less than 10% per annum 10% - 25 % 26% - 40 % More than 40% per annum
4% of the farmers in Madhya Pradesh pay ‘more than 40% per annum’ of the interest rates to the
money lenders.
In Maharastra, even though money lending from money lenders has been banned, 25% of the farmers
who take loan from money lenders pay the interest charges to the tune of 10% - 25% per annum.
Looking this data in light of….
o the data from Section 7.1.3 that 17% and 34% of the farmers from Maharastra and Madhya
Pradesh source finance from money lenders
o the data from Section 7.1.4 that this financing from money lender contributes about 46% and
57% of their total expenditure in Maharastra and Madhya Pradesh respectively
…it can be concluded that this is the most important reason for the financial distress of the farmers in
these state clusters. Money lending from these lenders increases the actual input costs of these
farmers significantly who are not able to understand this difference at the time of lending money. During
the qualitative phase, it was revealed that sourcing money from these money lenders is never the first
choice across the clusters. They have to take assistance from these money lenders because of the
following reasons:-
o Sourcing from banks is inadequate.
o Credit from banks is not available at the right time (purchase of seed, fertilizer, pesticide, etc).
34

6.2 Bt Cotton seed usage related

insights
6.2.1 Number of Bt cotton seed brands used during current crop
cycle
1% Mean Number of brands 1%
100%
13% 15% 11%

1.52
1.60 1.65
80%
60%
86% 85% 88%

40%
20%
0%
All 5 clusters (577) Western Z one (343) Southern Z one (234)
1 - 2 brands 3 - 5 brands 6 or More brands
When it comes to choosing Bt cotton brand, most of the farmers from both the zones choose 1 – 2
brands for Bt cotton crop. In the ‘Karnataka’ state of TN-Karnataka cluster, 100% of the farmers
covered under survey chose 1 – 2 brands Bt cotton brands. This is largely because farmers do not
have confidence and reliability of Bt cotton crop success as the category of seed is relatively new.
Farmers crop hybrid non-Bt category of seeds along with Bt cotton crop variety to distribute the risk of
crop failure.
35

6.2.2 Top 3 Seed companies providing certified Bt cotton

brands
36%
35%
49%
15%
Gujarat (110) 21%
61%
MP (104) 18%
22%
51%
58%
AP (143) 8%
36%
TN-Karnataka (91)
18%
22%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Percentage
Rasi Seeds (RCH - 2 / 20 / 111 / 118 / 138 / 144 / 368 / 371 / 377 / 708)
Ankur Seeds (Ankur 09 / 651)
Emergent Genetics (Brahma Bt)
Mahyco (Mech - 12 / 162 / 184)

Mahyco (MRC - 6301 / 6322 / 6918)
‘Rasi seeds’ is the only seed company among top 3 used certified Bt cotton seeds companies across 5
clusters.
‘Ankur seeds’ is the most popular seed company as far as usage is concerned in Maharastra with 61%
of the farmers who are using certified Bt cotton claimed to be using it.
‘Nuziveedu seeds’ is another dominant player with the presence in three clusters among top-3 seed
company category. Nuziveedu seeds are fairly popular among farmers of Andhra Pradesh and
Maharastra by the name of ‘Bunny’ and ‘Mallika’.
Other popular seed company brand names are: - Mahyco’s Mech and MRC brand variants that are
popular in Madhya Pradesh and TN-Karnataka cluster.
36

7 Perception, importance of factors and satisfaction
7.1 Category
Imagery
Gauging the perception levels of the cotton growing farmers for various seed categories with respect to
the attributes considered for purchasing cotton seeds was another important objective of this study.
Before determining the perception levels, the attributes on which farmers consider purchasing the
cotton seeds were identified through depth interviews with farmers in 2 states and secondary research.
A list of 16 attributes was prepared before launching the qualitative phase.
The perception levels across various clusters have been mapped below.
7.1.1 Maharastra
Maharastra (182)
Attributes Ordinary Hybrid Non-Bt Seeds
Seeds Bt cotton Seeds
Productivity per acre is high 3% 42% 77%
Long staple length 0% 36% 75%

Most brands are Government
approved 0% 51% 73%
Better germination 2% 52% 72%
Good pest resistance 2% 37% 70%
Easily available 3% 59% 70%
Less Pesticide requirement 3% 47% 69%
Most brands are similar 1% 54% 69%
Less prone to failure 1% 41% 68%
Various price ranges 4% 66% 68%
Expected RoI is high 3% 48 % 65%
Less Fertilizers requirement 2% 49% 57%
Doesn't Impact soil fertility 10% 60% 55%
Successful in rain-fed areas 7% 45% 51%
Less Efforts/Labour 2% 55% 50%
Reusability 6% 42% 49%
In Maharastra, cotton farmers have a positive disposition towards Bt cotton on the highlighted
attributes. It is only on one factor i.e. ‘this category of seeds doesn’t impact soil fertility’, hybrid non-Bt
scores marginally higher than Bt cotton seeds category. Other two attributes where hybrid non-Bt
category scored better by the cotton farmers were ‘This category is easily available’ and ‘This category
is available in various price ranges’ at 66% and 59% respectively.
37

In a correspondence map, the relative proximity of the point representing a seed category (red dot in
this case) to the point representing an attribute (green dot in this case) indicates the degree of
association of a seed category to an attribute.
Maharastra
Less Efforts/Labour
Hybrid Non-Bt
Various price ranges

Easily
Most brands are Government approved
Better germination Long staple
High Expected RoI
Bt Cotton
Less Pesticide Don't Impact soil fertility
Good pest resistance Reusability of seeds
High Productivity per acre
Ordinary Non-hybrid
Attributes
Seed Category
In the Maharastra cluster, this correspondence map shows that farmers associate ‘High Expected
Return on Investment’ with Bt cotton. Other attributes like ‘Less Pesticide requirements’, ‘Good pest
resistance’ and High Productivity per acre are also closely associated with Bt cotton brand.
38

7.1.2 Gujarat
Attributes Gujarat (188)

Ordinary Seeds Hybrid Non-Bt
RoI is high 13% 54% 79%

approved 6% 38% 69%
Good pest resista nce 3% 52% 62%
Perception scores of the cotton farmers from Gujarat are relatively better than the scores from the
farmers of Maharastra. Two possibilities can arise out of this comparison:-
o Either farmers from Maharastra are not associating themselves with any of the three categories
OR
o Farmers from Maharastra associate largely with only one type of category.
39

Data presented in the table above can be pictorially represented with the help of correspondence map
below.
Gujarat
Va riou s p rice ran ges

Va riou s p rice ran ges
G ood p est
G ood
Bt
resi sta pnce
-Hybrid
seeds est
Non
resi sta nce
-Hybrid
Bt seeds Non
E as i ly av ai lab le
E
Doasn'ti lyImavp ai
aclab
t s leo il f er t ili ty
Do n't Im p ac t s o il f er t ili ty
Mo st b ra nds a re simila r
Le
MossstEf f ort
b ra ndss/aLabre our
simila r
Le ss
Le ss Ef f ortt s/
prone o Lab
f ailour
ure
Be t ter ge rmina t ion
Le ss Pe
Le ss prone t o f ail ure
sti rmina
cide
Be t ter ge t ion
Leeus
R
reqss Pe
uirea bil
sti cide
mentit y o f s ee ds
R eus
req uirea bil
mentit y o f s ee ds
Les
Lo ngs stF apl
er t eili z er s r equ ir em e nt S uc c es s f ul i n r ain - fe d area s
Les
Longts st
ng F er t eili z er s r equ ir em e nt S uc c es s f ul i n r ain - fe d area s
le
High h aplect
Exp ed RoI
Ordinary Non -hybrid seeds
le ngt Exp
High h ect ed RoI
Bt Cotton seeds
Bt Cotton seeds
Most bran ds are G overn ment app roved

Most bran ds are G overn ment app roved
Hig h Produ cti vit y p er acre

Hig h Produ cti vit y p er acre
As shown in the map above cotton farmers from Gujarat closely associate themselves with Bt cotton on
some of the most important attributes. These attributes in the order of closeness of association are:-
o High expected return on investment
o Long staple length
o Less pesticide requirement
o Less prone to failure etc
Interestingly, these farmers associate ‘Successful in rain-fed areas’ to ‘Ordinary non-hybrid seeds’.
40

7.1.3 Madhya Pradesh
Attributes Madhya Pradesh (180)

approved 3% 8% 94%
RoI is high 24% 49% 86%
Re-usability 61% 9% 1%
Farmer in Madhya Pradesh also strongly associate the encircled attributes under Bt cotton column with
it. Higher score presents the percentage of farmers associating various attributes with a particular
category. Comparing the absolute scores of Maharastra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh cluster, a clear
trend of strong association with Bt cotton seed category across various attributes can be seen.
41

Madhya Pradesh
Bt seedsNon
-Hybrid Hybrid Non -Bt seeds
-Hybrid
Bt seedsNon
Be tt erusgeprice
Vario rminaratinge on s Va riou s p rice ran ges Bet t er germi nat io n
Lo ng st apl e len gt h Lon g sta ple l eng th
Vario
Be tt erusgeprice
rminaratinge on s
Lo sily
Ea ng stavai apl lab e lenle gt h E as il y a v ail abl e
H igh
Ea silyExp avaiect labed le R oI Hi gh Expe cte d Ro I
Mo
H igh Exp ect ed RsioImila r
st bra nds are Most bran ds are simi lar
Hi
Mogh st Prod
bra nds uct areivit si
y per
milaacre
r Hig h Produ cti vit y p er acre
Hiugh
Les
S cs cProd
Fesers ftuct
ili
ul zivit
inerry
saper
rinequ
-acre
feird em areae nt
s L es s F e r t i l iz e r s r e qu i r em en t S uc c e s s fu l in r a i n - f ed a r ea s
Les
S
Donu cs'tcIFes
merspaft ili
ul
c ztiner
s roi
sa lrinequ
fe-rfe
tiirdlitem
area
y e nt
s
Less
L essPest
proni ecide req uire ment D on' t I m pac t s oil f er t il it y
Don 't I m pa c t s oi l fe r ti lit y L ess Pest icid e requ ireme nt Le s s p r one
Less
tLoess Pest
pron
f ail uri eecide req uire ment
Ordinary Non-hybrid seeds t o f a ilu r e Ordinary Non-hybrid seeds
tBt
o Cotton seeds
f ail ur eNon-hybrid
Ordinary seeds Bt C ot to n
Bt Cotton
Le ss Ef f ortseeds
s/ Lab our seeds Le ss Ef f ort s/L abo ur
G ood
Le ss Ef p fest
ort s/ Lab our Go od pe st
G ood
resi sta pnce
est resist an ce
resi sta nce
Reu s ab ili ty of s eed s R eus a bi lit y o f s ee ds

Reu s ab ili ty of s eed s
Most bran ds are Most b rand s a re

Most
Go bran nt
vernme ds aare
ppro ved G ove rnmen t ap prove d
Go vernme nt a ppro ved
Correspondence map for Madhya Pradesh, as shown above, reveals strong association of ‘Good Pest
Resistance’ and ‘Less Pesticide requirement’ with Bt cotton seed category. Interestingly, association of
Bt cotton category with ‘Most Brands are Government Approved’ attribute is relatively lesser. Still that
association is stronger than other two categories.
Hybrid seed is associated with ‘Available in various price ranges’ attribute where as among all
categories, ‘Reusability of seeds’ is closer to Ordinary non-hybrid seed category.
42

7.1.4 Andhra Pradesh
Attributes Andhra Pradesh(181)


approved 6% 20% 91%
RoI is high 14% 26% 87%
Andhra Pradesh farmers have even more stronger association with Bt cotton seed category than with
Madhya Pradesh cluster farmers on certain important attributes.
Reusability of seeds is the only attribute that is strongly associated with ordinary non-hybrid cotton
seeds.
43

Andhra Pradesh
Most brandsofare
Reusability seeds
Most brandsofare
Government
Reusability approved
seeds
Government approved
Less Efforts/Labour
Less Efforts/Labour
High Expected
RoI
Ordinary
High
RoI Non -hybrid seeds
Expected
Bt Cotton seeds
Bt
Good pest seeds
Don'tCotton
Impact soil fertility
Less
Don'tPesticide
Impact requirement
Good pest soil fertility
resistance
Less Fertilizers requirement
Pesticide requirement
resistance
Less prone to
Less Fertilizers failure
requirement
Less prone to failure
Most brands are similar
Mostareas
brandsinare
Successful
-fed rainsimilar
Long
-fed stapleinlength
Successful
areas rain
Long staple length
Easily available
Easily available
Better germination
Better germination
-Hybrid
Bt seedsNon
Various
-Hybrid
Bt price ranges
seedsNon
Various price ranges
Correspondence map above show the strong association of Andhra Pradesh cotton farmers with the
following attributes in the order of closeness:-
o Less Pesticide requirement
o Less prone to failure
o Higher return on investment
o Less efforts / labour requirement
o Good pest resistance
o Less fertilizer requirement etc
Also for Andhra Pradesh, reusability of seeds is the only attribute that is strongly associated with
ordinary non-hybrid cotton seeds.
44

7.1.5 TN-Karnataka
Attributes TN-Karnataka (180)

RoI is high 18% 39% 56%

approved 29% 24% 41%
Percentage scores in the case of TN-Karnataka cluster cotton farmer are relatively lower for the
association of various attributes with Bt cotton seed category. This is because of the lesser awareness
and in turn lesser usage of Bt cotton seeds among the farmers of this cluster.
Farmers from TN-Karnataka cluster associate hybrid non-Bt category the most with ‘easy availability’
and ordinary seed category the most with ‘Doesn’t impact soil fertility’ attribute.
45

Tamil Nadu-Karnataka
Re us ab ili ty of s eed s
Hybrid Non-
Bt
L ess pron e to f ai lure
L ong st ap le le ngt h
H igh Exp ect ed R oI Le s s P e s ti c ide r e qui r em en t
Most b rand s a re
s im il ar Hi gh Prod uct ivit y per ac re
Va riou s p rice ra nge s
Do n't I m pa c t s oi l fe r ti lit y
Easi ly a vail abl e Bet te r g ermin at io n
Ordinary Non-hybrid
Bt
Go od pe st Su ccessf ul in ra in-f ed a reas
Cotton
resist an ce
Le s s F er t il iz er s r eq uir e m ent
L ess Eff ort s/ Lab our Most b rand s are

Go vernme nt a ppro ved
At t ribu te
See d Cat eg ory
Correspondence map of TN-Karnataka cluster is much different from other 4 previously mentioned
clusters. In this clusters, attributes are more scattered than largely confined in the previous categories.
Interestingly, factors like ‘Less prone to failure’, ‘Long staple length’ and ‘High expected return on
investment’ attributes are relatively closer to hybrid non-Bt category than to Bt cotton seed category.
This clearly shows that lesser awareness is leading to scattered perception. This was especially the
case with some clusters like the cotton growing belt in Coimbatore sub-cluster where awareness levels
towards Bt cotton were significantly lower.
46

7.2 Importance of attributes and

satisfaction
7.2.1 Overall satisfaction levels with various seed
categories
"Very Satisfied" Farmers with Various Seed Categories
100%
78%
80% 76%
61% 66% 66% 65%
60% 55%
43% 45% 47%
40% 35%
28%
20% 10% 9%
3%
0%
107 270 507 29 40 93 33 131 0 73 89 42 49 77 0 93 117
All MP AP Gujarat TN-Karnataka Maharastra
Ordinary non-hybrid seeds Hybrid non-Bt seeds

Respondent Sample sizes
Certified Bt cotton seeds
Mean Score (Out of 5)
Cluster Name Ordinary Hybd Non-Bt Certified Bt
All 5 4.14 3.96 4.36
M.P. 4.72 4.33 4.78
A.P. 4.33 3.8 4.66
Gujarat - 4.41 4.64
TN-Kar 3.79 4.33 4.60
Maharastra - 3.29 3.33
Table: 8.2.1
Looking at the graph above, 78% of the farmers f rom Madhya Pradesh who have used certified Bt
cotton are very much satisfied with a mean satisfaction score of 4.78 out of 5.
Maharastra has the least percentage i.e. only 9% of the cotton farmers who have used certified Bt
cotton this year and are very much satisfied. The reason for this was found during qualitative phase
where it came out that some areas in the state had an attack of sucker pests (colloquial name ‘laliya’).
Farmers’ lack of awareness about the fact that Bt cotton is resistant against Lepidoptera pest can also
be the reason for lesser satisfaction.
47

7.2.2 Distribution of attributes, across ‘Satisfaction – Importance’

matrix
I. Ordinary Seed Category
High Satisfaction levels* Low

High
Strength aspects for Ordinary Seed Priority Action aspects for Ordinary Seed
Category Category
• Productivity per acre (4.19)
• Expected RoI (4.06)
• Output quality i.e. staple length (4.21)
• Germination of seeds (4.18)
• Impact on soil fertility (4.22)
• Ease of availability of cred it (4.01)
• Reusability of the preserved seeds (3.96)
• Efforts-my & labour involvement (3.75)
As pe ct s t o d eve lop a s s tr en gt h f or As pe ct s t o f oc us u po n f or O rd in ar y S ee d
Ordinary Seed Category Category
• Ease of availability (4.2 5) • Category of seed – Bt / Non-Bt etc (3.44)

• Water requir ement for growth (4.11) • Certification of seeds (2.78)
• Price within a particular seed category
(4.00)
• Pest resistance (3.85)
• Proneness to crop failure (3.85)
• Requirement of pesticide sprays (3.77)
Low
The matrix above segregates various attributes that play some role towards the decision making of the
cotton farmers when they purchase ordinary cotton seed in their order of importance and also depicts
satisfaction level of the farmers using ordinary category seeds.
The ‘satisfaction-importance’ matrix above shows distribution of attributes for hybrid cotton seed
category users. Scores against each attribute shows mean value of satisfaction scores out of 5 for that
particular attribute.
In the matrix above,

o If the mean satisfaction level score for a particular attribute is more than 3.5 out of 5, it is taken
as high as far as satisfaction with that attribute is concerned.
o Importance of a particular attribute has been calculated by using ‘regression’ on all the attributes
with the overall satisfaction. Beta score of each attribute has been compared to evaluate the
importance as far as deriving overall satisfaction with a particular category is concerned. In case
of ordinary cotton seed category for a particular attribute if the beta co-efficient is 0.08 or more,
it has been taken as important factor in deriving satisfaction levels.
48

II. Hybrid Non-Bt Seed Category

High
Strength aspects for Hybrid Non-Bt Seed Priority Action aspects for Hybrid Non-Bt
Category Seed Category
• Price within a particular seed category (3.80)
• Water requirement for growth (3.87 )
• Category of the seeds- Bt, Non-Bt etc (3.75)
• Requirement of fertilizers (3.6)
• Certification of the quality of seeds (3.51)
Aspects to develop as strength for Hybrid Aspects to focus upon for Hybrid Non-Bt
Non-Bt Seed Category Seed Category
• Germination of seeds (3.98) • Reusability of the preserved seeds (3.06)
• Ease of availability (4.14)
• Ease of availability of credit (3.59)
Low
The ‘satisfaction-importance’ matrix above shows distribution of attributes for hybrid cotton seed

o If the mean satisfaction level score for a particular attribute is ‘3.5 or more’ out of 5, it is taken as
high as far as satisfaction with that attribute is concerned.
o For a particular attribute if the beta co-efficient is 0.08 or more, it has been taken as important
factor in deriving satisfaction levels
49

III. Bt cotton Seed Category
The ‘satisfaction-importance’ matrix above shows distribution of attributes for certified Bt cotton seed
High
Strength aspects for Bt Cotton Seed Priority Action aspects for Bt Cotton Seed
Category Category

• Price within a particul ar seed category (4.03)
Aspects to develop as strength for Bt Aspects to focus upon for Bt Cotton Seed
Cotton Seed Category Category
• Germinati on of seeds (4.24) • Reusabi lity of the preserved seeds (2.7 6)
• Certification of the quality of seeds (4.41)
• Water requirement for growth (4.16)
Low

o If the mean satisfaction level score for a particular attribute is ‘More than 4.1’ out of 5, it is taken
factor in deriving satisfaction levels.
Comparative higher score for certified Bt cotton seed users shows good correlation and robustness of
data points.
50

8 Cost Economics & Productivity
This section deals with looking at expenditure related aspects. It compares the return on investment for
the cotton farmer who has used certified Bt cotton seed with a farmer who has used hybrid and ordinary
cotton seeds. Comparison of return on investment has been done by asking the cotton farmers about
the expenditure incurred and/or are planning to incur during current crop cycle and comparing the
productivity expectation for this crop cycle. Within each cluster, expenditure and productivity
expectation related insights have been collected for the seed category cultivated maximum by the
cotton farmer. In this process, sufficient minimum respondents under each category have been insured.
Broadly, issues like number of sprays of pesticide used or are planning to use during current cotton
crop cycle – for non-Bt cotton seeds and for the seed category cultivated in the maximum land area,
important cost head wise expenditure break up and productivity expectations etc have been captured in
this section.
8.1 Number of sprays of pesticide for Non-Bt cotton

seeds
4
6
3 4,9
4,4
2 3,9 4,2
2,6
0
AP (70) TN-Karnataka Gujarat (88) MP (86) Maharashtra All 5 clusters
(96) (105) (445)
Mean Number of Sprays
The graph above show that the cotton farmers from Andhra Pradesh who cultivated non-Bt cotton crop
this year have used or are planning to use maximum number of pesticide sprays per acre of the cotton
crop cultivation.
Cotton farmers from Maharastra who cultivated non-Bt cotton crop this year are expecting to use only
2.6 (mean value) number of sprays during current cotton crop cycle.
51

Last year, sucker pest attack (colloquially named ‘Laliya’) ruined both the crop - hybrid and Bt cotton
equally.
“..Cotton crop was badly affected for 2 years consecutively because of 'laliya' (sucking
pest attack). Bt cotton crop was affected more than Non-Bt hybrid crop from this attack...”
- One of the farmers from the cotton growing belt of Yavatmal district in Maharastra
“This year we are facing attack from ‘Millibug’ (colloquial name: safed masi / white fly,
kind of sucker pest). In this attack, fr uit (colloquially ‘pan’) becomes red and leaves and
stems (colloquially ‘chara’) becomes dray. We tried 2 – 3 pesticide like Monocoto and
some pesticide but in vain even for Bt cotton crop. Farmers do not know which pesticide
to use? From other farmers we came to know about Confudour powder. Some others are
using hippolin detergent powder spray with some pesticide.”
-One of the farmers from the cotton growing belt of ‘Karjan, Vadodra’ in Gujarat
“..pesticide consumption is increasing - last year we did 4 sprays; this year we are
expecting around 7 – 8 sprays out of which 5 – 6 sprays have already been done....”
- One of the farmers from the cotton growing belt of ‘Padra, Vadodra’ in Gujarat
52

8.2 Number of sprays of pesticide per

acreof sprays of pesticide per acre had been recorded for the cotton seed category, the farmer had
Number
cultivated in the maximum crop area. Thus the responses of all the three seed category users can be
compared and the pesticide consumption patterns can be evaluated.
8.2.1 Ordinary Non-hybrid seed
Due to lesser number of respondents cultivating maximum area with ordinary non-hybrid seeds
especially in central zone (only 29 out of sample size of 550 respondents) , data has been presented at
the zonal level.
5
Ordinary Non-hybrid seed
2 2,9 3,2
0
Cental Zone (29) Southern Zone (72)
Mean No. of Sprays
The table above shows that f armer cultivating cotton with ordinary seed use lesser number of pesticide
sprays. During qualitative phase, it was revealed that farmers have lesser stake and relatively lesser
expectations when they cultivate ordinary cotton seeds. These are generally cultivated in the rain-fed
areas where risks of failure are relatively higher.
53

8.2.2 Hybrid non-Bt and Bt cotton seeds
Number of pesticide sprays
10
6 8 6,5
6,2 6,3 6,1
4 4,5
5,3
4,4 3,8 4,5
2 3,3
1,7
0
264 488 67 AP 80 92 45 48 75 100
All 5 Gujarat 92 MP 100 TN- Maharastra
Karnataka
For Hybrid Category seed F or Certified Bt Cotton Category
Comparative data between hybrid seed category and certified Bt cotton seed category shows different
picture across different clusters. In Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, hybrid seed users spray more
pesticides than certified Bt cotton users. In AP, this difference is bigger than in Gujarat. Whereas the
case is reverse with the MP, Maharastra and TN-Karntaka cluster cotton farmers.
Three reasons were identified for higher pesticide sprays in these clusters:-
o Awareness about which type of pesticide would be used for which pest attack was found to be
leser.
o Farmers cultivating certified Bt cotton seed category treat their cultivation as ‘Jersey Cow’ that
has a potential to provide better yields if they will properly care for their cultivation.
o In some of the regions, last year sucker pest attack equally ruined both Bt and non-Bt cotton
crops. Farmers lacking the differentiation between Lepidoptera and Sucker pests are using the
pesticides ‘mixture’ even for ‘Lepidoptera’ pests.
54

8.3 Productivity expectation per acre for various seed

categories
As shown in the graph below, respondents were asked for the seed category cultivated in the maximum
area. Productivity expectations in quintals per acre from the crop cultivated in the maximum farm area
were asked. For Bt cotton, productivity expectation were highest at 10.4 quintals per acre in Gujarat
and lowest at 5.7 quintals per acre in Maharastra across five clusters.
Productivity per acre for various seed categories

(in Quintals/acre; 1 Quintal = 100 Kgs)
15
10,4
9,4 9,5 9,1
10 8,3 8
6,7 6,7 6,7
6,2 6,8
5,4 4,2 5,7
4,9
5
0
101 264 0 80 92 40 48 32 29 45 0 75
488 All Gujarat 78 TN-Karnataka 126 AP 92 MP 100 Maharastra
Respondent Sample Sizes For Ordinary non-hybrid seeds For Hybrid non-Bt
seeds
For Certified Bt cotton
seeds
Juxtaposing the expenditure related insights, that were asked for various cost head for the seed
category cultivated in the maximum area, with the productivity figure for various seed categories would
compare the profitability/loss of Bt cotton for the cotton farmers.
Comparing the expenditure and productivity of Maharastra and Gujarat clusters as these are the cluster
with the maximum and minimum percentage expenditure and productivity expectation difference while
replacing hybrid non-Bt category with the Bt cotton seed category.
Maharastra Gujarat
Activities Hybrid non-Bt Bt cotton Hybrid non-Bt Bt cotton
seeds seeds seeds seeds
Expenditure in Rupees (4 cost heads)
per acre 3325 4217 6696 7478
Expenditure – total (taking above
expenditure to be 80% of the total) per 4156 5 271 8 370 9 348
acre
Productivity per acre expectation from
table above (in Quintals) 4,2 5,7 9,4 10,4
Return in Rupees per acre
(Assuming average rate of Rs 1600 per 6720 9120 15040 16640
quintal between Nov 06 to March 07)
Profit per acre
2564 3849 6670 7293
Profit as percentage of investment 62% 73% 80% 78%
55

9 Intention to purchase and likelihood to recommend
This section probed into the farmers’ intention to purchase and likelihood to recommend certified Bt
seeds (with the farmers who are using it presently).
It also probed into the intention to purchase and likelihood to recommend ‘Bt fruits and vegetables’ with
the farmers who would be interested in purchasing certified Bt cotton seeds in future also, after
exposing the farmers with the following concept card.
About Bt Technology:
In this technology of seed production, a gene is injected to the seed for breeding. This gene is
either naturally present in the environment or further modified by various companies to provide
desired benefits according the crop where it has been injected. This technology can be used to
develop the seeds of various fruits and vegetables. Hence, the desired benefits can be brought
to various fruits and vegetables. These fruits & vegetables are similar to ordinary fruits and
vegetables in looks and taste and are certified by Government of India for safer use.
Benefits of Bt fruits and vegetables:

Better nutritional value
Better shelf life
Homogeneous and better looks
However, Bt fruits and vegetables may be available at 10% - 20% higher prices of the
prevailing fruits and vegetables.
Intention to purchase and likelihood to recommend Bt – fruits and vegetable was asked from the
farmers who were definitely interested in purchasing Bt cotton seeds.
Farmers’ intention to purchase Bt cotton and the Bt fruits and vegetables can be looked in parallel and
thus the acceptability of the later can be extrapolated based on the performance of Bt cotton in various
clusters.
56

9.1 Intention to purchase – Certified Bt cotton and certified

Bt fruits/vegetable
s
Definitely interested in purchase in the future
99% 95%
100% 94% 93% 92%
91%
88%
90%
83% 82% 79%
80%
67%
70% 62%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
567 449 138 137 108 102 104 98 91 84 126 78
All AP MP Gujarat TN-Karnataka Maharastra
Respondent Sample Sizes

Certified Bt Cotton seeds Certified Bt fruits and vegetables
Interestingly, referring to Section 8.2.1 , satisfaction among Bt cotton users of Maharastra with the seed
category is very less, still 62% of them would be ‘Definitely Interested’ in purchasing the same. Out of
these 62% of the farmers i.e. out of 78 respondent, 67% were ‘Definitely interested’ in purchasing Bt
fruits and vegetable when they were exposed to the ‘Bt fruit and vegetable’ (or ‘GM fruit and
vegetable’). Maharastra is also the only state where percentage farmers who are ‘Definitely interested’
in purchasing ‘Bt (or GM) fruits and vegetable’ is more than the percentage of farmers who are
‘Definitely interested’ in purchasing ‘Bt cotton’.
In Andhra Pradesh, overwhelmingly 99% farmers were ‘Definitely Interested’ in purchasing certified Bt
cotton seeds in the coming crop cycles.
As far as purchase of ‘Bt (or GM) fruits and vegetables’ is concerned, TN-Karnataka and Madhya
Pradesh clusters lead with 92% and 91% of the farmers ‘Definitely interested’ in purchasing it.
57

9.2 Likelihood to recommend – Bt cotton and Bt

fruits/vegetables
Very li kely to recommend - Bt c otton seeds and Bt (or GM) fruits /vegetables
99% 93%
100% 90% 92% 88% 86%
90% 81% 81%
79%
80% 78%
70%
60% 50%
50% 40%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
567 449 138 137 91 84 104 98 108 102 126 78
All AP TN-Karnataka Gujarat MP Maharastra
Respondent Sample Sizes
Bt Cotton seeds Bt fruits and vegetables
Andhra Pradesh also leads when it comes to ‘likelihood to recommend’ Bt cotton seeds,
overwhelmingly 99% farmers were ‘Very likely’ to recommend it to other farmers in the coming crop
cycles.
As far as purchase of ‘Bt (or GM) fruits and vegetables’ is concerned, TN-Karnataka and Madhya
Pradesh clusters lead with 90% and 86% of the farmers ‘Very likely’ in recommending it.
58

10 Conclusions
This section outlines the summary of the findings for the research study.
Awareness of Bt cotton
A major part of the TN-Karnataka cluster still needs to be educated about the Bt cotton category of
seeds. In this cluster, as high as 30% of the farmers are not aware about this category of seeds.
Awareness in Maharastra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh was however found to be
cent percent.
The graph below also shows that even among those who are aware of this category, awareness about
certification is considerably low in the TN-Karnataka cluster as compared to other state clusters. This
shows there is a significant need of educating the farmers in this cluster.
Awareness of certification for Bt cotton seeds
100% 1% 4% 9%
13%
80%
47%
60%
99% 96% 91%
87%
40%
53%
20%
0%
Gujarat (188) Maharastra (182) MP (180) AP (181) TN & Karnataka

(126)
Aware of certification Not aware of certification
Perception of Bt cotton seeds
Across the clusters, farmers hold a fairly positive perception of Bt cotton seeds. Taking into account all
the factors - return related, input related, quality related and availability related - it is evident that Bt
cotton seeds as a category has scored over hybrid non-Bt cotton hybrid seeds and ordinary seeds. The
detailed perceptions have been explained below:-
59

Perception of Bt cotton seeds
Return Related Across seed categories, Bt cotton is associated better with return related factors, e.g.
Return on Investment and Quantity of output per acre.
Input Related Bt cotton seed is perceived to be a yielding seed category if sufficient quantities of
inputs e.g. fertilizers and water are provided.
Qualit It is also perceived to be a good cotton quality producing seed with a long staple
y length as the size of the cotton fruit is better. It is also perceived to be good during
Related
seed germination with a better pest resistance than that of other seed categories.
Availabilit It has a positive association in terms of its availability and is also perceived to be
y Related lesser prone to crop failure, vis-à-vis other seed categories.
Satisfaction with Bt cotton seeds
The grid below classifies various aspects in terms of farmers’ satisfaction with Bt cotton seeds on these
and the relative importance farmers attribute to them while considering the purchase of cotton seeds.
.

High
Strength aspects for Bt Cotton Seed Priority Action aspects for Bt Cotton Seed
Category Category

• Price within a particul ar seed category (4.03)
Aspects to develop as strength for Bt Aspects to focus upon for Bt Cotton Seed
Cotton Seed Category Category
• Germinati on of seeds (4.24) • Reusabi lity of the preserved seeds (2.7 6)
• Certification of the quality of see ds (4.41)
• Water requirement for growth (4.16)
Low
60


o If the mean satisfaction level score for a particular attribute is ‘More than 3.5’ out of 5, it is taken
factor in deriving satisfaction levels.
Reasons for financial distress
While exploring the major reasons for financial distress, ‘minimum support price’ has been sighted as
the most important reason for the financial distress. Other reasons for financial distress / suicides that
were significantly highlighted during in-depth Interviews with farmers are:-
o Inability to pay back bank loans of the previous year that debars eligibility for the crop loan for
next year. When farmers do not get full credit on their finance requirements from banks, they
resort to other available options like approaching money lenders, who charge exorbitantly high
interest rates.
o Sole dependence on agriculture is another prominent reason for financial distress observed
during the qualitative phase. The situation worsens when the crop fails for more than one year.
Reasons for financial distress
100%
30% 15%
80% 49% 40% 49%
73% 60%
60% 7%
62%
7%
40% 56%
21% 44% 35%
46%
20% 10%
4% 5% 12%
12% 14% 10% 11%
1% 4% 4% 9% 9%
0%
AP (1 81 ) Ma h a ra st ra (1 82 ) TN & K a rn at a ka MP (1 80 ) Gu j ar at ( 18 8 ) N on -B t Co t t o n Bt C o tt o n Fa rme r
( 18 0 ) F ar me r (3 9 4 ) (5 17 )
Less ‘Minimum Support Price’

High input costs
Less availability of fertilizer
Any other (including less fertility, lacking alternative occupation)
73% of cotton producing farmers from Andhra Pradesh and 60% of cotton producing farmers from
Maharastra believe that a low ‘minimum support price’ fixed by the Government is the most important
reason for financial distress among cotton growing farmers.
62% of cotton producing farmers in Gujarat followed by 56% of cotton producing farmers in Madhya
Pradesh consider the high input cost to be the most important reason for financial distress.
61

11 Annexure
11.1 Newspaper reading

habits
100%
Mahrastra Farmers, Bas e: 166
80%
60%
90%
40%
20%
8% 5% 5% 5% 5% 4%
16%
0%
Newspapers
Lokmat Sakal Tarun Bharat (Nagpur)

Punya Nagri Deshomati Nava Bharat
Any other Deshdoot
Lokmat (regional daily) is the single most popular newspaper among cotton growing farmers of
Maharastra with a readability of 90%. It is distantly followed by Sakal at 8% and others with a
readability of 5% or less.
1 0 0%
8 0%
6 0%
4 0%
51% 8% 50% 7%
2 0%
0%
Newspapers
Gujarat Samachar Sandesh Akila Any other
Gujarat Samachar and Sandesh are more or less equally popular among cotton growing farmers of
Gujarat as far as readership goes with a readability of 51% and 50% respectively.
62

100%
Madhya Pradesh Farmers, Base: 105
80%
60%
40%
64% 16% 12% 3%
20% 38% 27%
0%
Newspapers
Dainik Bhas kar Nava Bharat Na i Dun iy a
Raj Express Dainik Jagran Amar Ujala
Dainik Bhaskar, hindi daily, has a readership percentage of 64% among cotton growing farmers of
Madhya Prades. Nav Bharat and Nai Duniya are the 2nd and 3rd most read newspapers with a
readership percentage of 38% and 27% respectively.
100%
Andhra Pradesh Farm ers, Base: 116

80%
60%
84%
40%
45% 42% 14%

20%
1%
0%
Newspapers
Eenadu Andhra Jyoti Vaartha
Andhra Bhoomi Any other
Eenadu has a readership percentage of 84% among Andhra Pradesh cotton growing farmers. Andhra
Jyoti and Vaartha are competing with each other with a readership percentage of 45% and 42%
respectively.
63

10 0%
Karnatak a Farmers, Base: 54
8 0%
6 0%
4 0% 80% 63% 54%

20%
2 0% 7% 2% 2%
0%
Newspapers
Samyukta Karnataka Vijay Karnataka Prajavani
Kannada Prabha Udayvani Andhra Bhoomi
Nav Bharat
‘Samyukta Karnataka’ (regional daily) newspaper has a readership of 80% among cotton growing
farmers in Karnataka. ‘Vijay Karnataka’, ‘Prajavani’ and ‘Kannada Prabha’ has a readership percentage
of 63%, 54% and 20% respectively.
100%
Tamil Nadu Farmers, Base: 69

80%
60%
83% 68%
40%
20%
29% 7% 1%
0%
Newspapers
Dina Thanthi Dina Malar Dina Mani
Dina Karan Malai Malar
Most readable newspaper among cotton growing farmers of Tamil Nadu are Dina Thanthi and Dina
Malar with the readability of 83% and 68% respectively. Dina Mani and Dina Karan has a readability of
29% and 7% respectively
64

11.2 Popular televi sion

channels
1 00% 1 00%
80% 89% Mahrastra Farmers,
80%
Base: 182
60%
60%
100%
40%
40% 77%
17% 14% 11%
14% 13%
20%
20% 11 % 10%
0%
0%
TV c hannels TV channels
DD 1 - National Net. DD10 Sahyadri (Mara DD 1 - National Net. DD 2 - Metro
DD 2 - Metro ETV Marathi ETV Gujarati Star Plus
Aaj Tak Set Max
10 0 % 1 0 0%
Madhya Pradesh Farmers, Base: 180 Andhra Pradesh Farmers, Base: 181
80% 8 0%
60% 6 0%
77% 44 %
40% 81% 4 0% 77%

50% 27%
27% 18%
17% 11% 11% 2 0%
20%
0%
0%
TV channels TV channels
DD 1 - National Net. Aaj Tak Eenadu TV Gemini TV Te ja TV

Sahara TV Zee Cinema
DD 2 - Metro Star Gold Maa Telugu DD8 Telug u
1 00% 100 %
Tamil Nadu Farmers,
Karnataka Farmers, Base: 90
80 % 80 %
Base: 90
89%
60 % 60 % 49%
68%
35% 35%
40 % 40 % 83%
7 1 % 31%
60 %
40 % 13%
20 % 20 %
0% 0%
TV channels TV c hannels
ETV Kannada Udaya TV Dina Thanthi Sun TV Jaya TV
Ushe TV DD9 Chandana (Kanna
DD 1 - National Net. Raj TV Vijay TV KTV
65

11.3 Number of Bt cotton seed brands used during current crop

cycle
Mean Number of brands
1% 2% 3%
100%
1.85 1.68 1.40
8% 16% 15%
20%
80%
60%
97%
92% 84%
40% 79% 83%
20%
0%
Maharashtra (129) Gujarat (110) MP (104) AP (143) TN-Karnataka (91)
1 - 2 brands 3 - 5 brands More than 6 brands
66

11.4 Satisfaction on the factors with respect to usage of various

cotton seed
categories
11.4.1 Ordinary Non-hybrid cotton
seeds
Factors considered - Base: Western Zone (32)
4,81 4,5 4,38

5 4,34 4,34 4,34 4,28 4,28 4,28 4,19 4,16
4,16 4 3,75
3,66
4 2,94
3
2 1,16
Factors considered - Base: Southern Zone (75)
5 4, 21 4, 21 4 ,17 4,14 4,11 4,05 4,04 4,01 3,93 3,92 3,88 3,67 3,65 3,6
4 3,59 3,57 3,47
67

11.4.2 Hybrid Non-Bt cotton seeds
5 4 ,0 9 4 ,0 2 4 ,0 1
3,97 3,81 3,8 3,8 3,79 3,7 3,68 3,67 3,62 3,6 3,56
4 3,52 3,37 3,17
5 4,32 4,29 4,22

4,15 4,14 4,1 4,07 4,05 4,03 3,98 3,89 3,88 3,85 3,8
3,78
4 3,54
2,68
3
68

11.4.3 Bt cotton seeds
5 4,49 4,29 4,2

4,2 4,18 4,18 4,02 4,02 4,01 3,99 3,95
3,96 3,95 3,84
3,78
4 3,45
2,98
3
4,66 4,64 4,58

5 4,57 4,51 4,49 4,46 4,46 4,32
4,33 4,29 4,19 4,08
4,14 4,04 3,91
4
2,44
3
69

11.5 Unaided recall for Top 10 certified Bt cotton seed

companies/brands
All (5 clusters) Maharastra Gujarat MP AP TN & Karnataka
577 129 110 104 143 91
RCH brands Ankur 09 / 651 RCH brands RCH brands NCS - 145 (Bunny)
(Rasi Seeds) (Ankur Seeds) (Rasi Seeds) (Rasi Seeds) / 207 (Mallika) / RCH brands
(69%) (84%) (73%) (81%) 913 (Nuziveedu (Rasi Seeds)
Seeds) (74%) (45%)
Ankur 09 / 651 Mech - 12 /
(Ankur Seeds) RCH - brands Ankur 09 / 162 / 184 MRC - 6301 /
(42%) (Rasi Seeds) 651 (Ankur (Mahyco) RCH brands (Rasi 6322 / 6918
(67%) Seeds) (60%) (51%) Seeds) (74%) (Mahyco) (31%)
NCS
- 145 NCS - 145
(Bunny) / 207 (Bunny) / 207
(Mallika) / 913 (Mallika) / 913 VICH - 5 / 9 / Ankur 09 / Brahma Bt Brahma Bt
(Nuziveedu (Nuziveedu 111 (Vikram 651 (Ankur (Emergent (Emergent
Seeds) (38%) Seeds) (54%) Seeds) (45%) Seeds) (39%) Genetics) (31%) Genetics) (23%)
Mech - 12 / Mech - 12 / ACH - 11 - 2
Mech - 12 / 162 162 / 184 162 / 184 (BG - II) Mech - 12 / 162 /
/ 184 (Mahyco) (Mahyco) (Mahyco) (Ajeet Seeds) Tulasi - 4 (Tulasi 184 (Mahyco)
(31%) (28%) (34%) (35%) Seeds) (29%) (20%)
NCS - 145
(Bunny) / 207 Mech - 12 / 162 /
Brahma Bt (Mallika) / 184 (Mahyco)
Brahma Bt (Emergent 913 ACH - 155-1 / (22%) Ankur 09 / 651
(Emergent Genetics) (Nuziveedu 33-1(Ajeet (Ankur Seeds)
Genetics) (19%) (27%) Seeds) (25%) Seeds) (26%) (15%)
MRC - 6301 /
Tulasi - 4 Tulasi - 4 Tulasi - 4 6322 / 6918 JK Durga / Varun KDCHH - 9632
(Tulasi Seeds) (Tulasi Seeds) (Tulasi (Mahyco) (Event 1) (JK (Krishidhan)
(16%) (16%) Seeds) (15%) (26%) Seeds) (14%) (12%)
NCS - 145
MRC - MRC brands (Bunny) / 207
MRC - 6301 / ACH - 155-1 / brands (BG - (BG - II) MRC - 6301 / 6322 (Mallika) / 913
6322 / 6918 33-1(Ajeet II) (Mahyco) (Mahyco) / 6918 (Mahyco) (Nuziveedu
(Mahyco) (16%) Seeds) ( 14%) (14%) (20%) (12%) Seeds) (12%)
MRC - 7201 / GK - 205 /
7301 / 7329 / MRC - 6301 / 207 / 209 GK - 205 / 207 /
7347 / 7351 KDCHH - 9632 6322 / 6918 (Ganga Ankur 09 / 651 209 (Ganga
(BG - II) (Krishidhan) (Mahyco) Kaveri (Ankur Seeds) Kaveri Seeds)
(Mahyco) (11%) (12%) (10%) Seeds) (18%) (10%) (5%)
JK Durga / JK Durga / NCEH - 2R / 3R
ACH - 11 - 2 ACH - 11 - 2 Varun (Event Varun (Event KDCHH - 441 (BG (GFM Event)
(BG - II) (Ajeet (BG - II) (Ajeet 1) (JK Seeds) 1) (JK Seeds) - II) (Krishidhan) (Nath Seeds)
Seeds) (10%) Seeds) (12%) (4%) (13%) (8%) (5%)
MRC - brands
VICH - 5 / 9 / (BG - II) JKCH - 99 Tulasi - 4 PRCH - 102 / 103 / JK Durga / Varun
111 (Vikram (Mahyco) (Event 1) (JK (Tulasi 2270 (Pravardhan (Event 1) (JK
Seeds) (10%) (10%) Seeds) (4%) Seeds) (13%) Seeds) (8%) Seeds ) (4%)
70

11.6 Aided recall for top 5 certified Bt cotton

brands
ll (5 clusters) Maharastra Gujarat MP AP TN & Karnataka

577 129 110 104 143 91
RCH brands Ankur 09 / 651 RCH brands RCH brands NCS - 145 (Bunny)
(Rasi Seeds) (Ankur Seeds) (Rasi Seeds) (Rasi Seeds) / 207 (Mallika) / RCH brands
(69%) (84%) (73%) (81%) 913 (Nuziveedu (Rasi Seeds)
Seeds) (74%) (45%)
Ankur 09 / 651 Mech - 12 /
(Ankur Seeds) RCH - brands Ankur 09 / 162 / 184 MRC - 6301 /
(42%) (Rasi Seeds) 651 (Ankur (Mahyco) RCH brands (Rasi 6322 / 6918
(67%) Seeds) (60%) (51%) Seeds) (74%) (Mahyco) (31%)
NCS
- 145 NCS - 145
(Bunny) / 207 (Bunny) / 207
(Mallika) / 913 (Mallika) / 913 VICH - 5 / 9 / Ankur 09 / Brahma Bt Brahma Bt
(Nuziveedu (Nuziveedu 111 (Vikram 651 (Ankur (Emergent (Emergent
Seeds) (38%) Seeds) (54%) Seeds) (45%) Seeds) (39%) Genetics) (31%) Genetics) (23%)
Mech - 12 / Mech - 12 / ACH - 11 - 2
Mech - 12 / 162 162 / 184 162 / 184 (BG - II) Mech - 12 / 162 /
/ 184 (Mahyco) (Mahyco) (Mahyco) (Ajeet Seeds) Tulasi - 4 (Tulasi 184 (Mahyco)
(31%) (28%) (34%) (35%) Seeds) (29%) (20%)
NCS - 145
(Bunny) / 207
Brahma Bt (Mallika) /
Brahma Bt (Emergent 913 ACH - 155-1 / Mech - 12 / 162 / Ankur 09 / 651
(Emergent Genetics) (Nuziveedu 33-1(Ajeet 184 (Mahyco) (Ankur Seeds)
Genetics) (19%) (27%) Seeds) (25%) Seeds) (26%) (22%) (15%)
71

Dokumen - Tips - Imrb Report Dec 2006

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Dokumen - Tips - Imrb Report Dec 2006

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Prepared For: All India Crop Biotechnology Association (AICBA)

Prepared By: Business & Industrial Research Division, IMRB

7.2 Importance of attributes and satisfaction ...................................................................................... 47

crops generally bred to be herbicide-resistant or insect-resistant is commonly referred to as genetically

modified (GM) crop.

like drought, salinity, or water logging.

made the landmark decision of approving cultivation of Bt cotton in India

of the cotton growing belt.

1.2 Need for

gained negative publicity.

2 Objectives of the study

The study was commissioned with the following objective in mind:

certified Bt cotton brands

cotton seeds among farmers

identified purchase criteria

Modified fruits and vegetables by cotton farmers in the future

a. Crop cycles per year

b. Land utilization for cotton

c. Distribution of farmers between ‘Rain fed’ and ‘Irrigated’ area

d. Reasons for financial distress among cotton growing farmers

a. Awareness of Bt cotton seeds

b. Awareness of certification among Bt cotton brands

c. Sources of awareness about certification among Bt cotton brands

d. Sources of awareness about availability of various Bt brands

a. Sources of Purchases during current crop cycle

b. Purchase process at the seed shop

c. Source of finances used for sourcing total expenditure

d. Percentage distribution of the total expenditure from various sources

e. Interest rates charged by various entities financing expenditure

f. Number of Bt cotton seed brands used during current crop cycle

seeds on the identified purchase criteria

a. Correspondence maps & top 2 boxes for various factors

b. Importance of the factors

c. Overall satisfaction levels – top 2 boxes with various seed categories

d. ‘Satisfaction – Importance’ matrix for various factors:-

category cultivated on a maximum area:-

c. Individual break up for seed, pesticide, fertilizer and labour for:-

categories (cultivated in the maximum area):-

fruits and vegetables by cotton farmers in the future

a. Intention to purchase – Bt cotton and Bt fruits/vegetables

b. Likelihood to recommend – Bt cotton and Bt fruits/vegetables

a. Newspaper reading habits

b. Most popular television channels

c. Most popular radio stations

3.1 DATA COLLECTION METHODOLOGY

3.1.1 Module 1 : Quantitative survey with

Area under Western / Central Zone Southern Zone

Table 1 : Sample Size distribution by area under cotton cultivation

Type of Western / Cen tral Zone Sout hern Zone

Selection of sub-clusters within each state

o District level contribution in the cotton production of the state.

At the state level, the following sub-clusters (district) were covered:-

Maharastra Gujarat Madhya Pradesh

Overall, 23 districts were covered across 6 states.

3.1.2 Module 2 : In-depth interviews with Farmers and other

Zones Covered States Covered Sample Size

3.2 DATA ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY

State clusters – The various state clusters are as follows:

Farmer classification – Farmers have been classified and reported as follows:

3.2.1 .1 Key terms used i n the

posters etc) along with the unaided recall.

3.2.2 Key analysis techniques

4 Cotton farming practices and farmer distress