Bt Technology: Labour-use Pattern in Cotton Cultivation — A Case Study of Andhra Pradesh

The study has examined the female labour-use pattern in Bt cotton cultivation in the state of Andhra Pradesh during 2006–07. It has been found that physical yield obtained is 21.44 per cent higher in Bt cotton than non-Bt cotton cultivation. The total labour employment is 13 per cent higher in Bt cotton that non-Bt cotton cultivation, whereas the proportion of hired labour is 11 per cent higher in Bt cotton. The proportion of hired labour to total labour has been found to increase with farm-size in Bt cotton cultivation. A positive relationship is found between labour-use and farm-size. The total employment opportunities have increased with Bt cotton cultivation in all the farming categories, though not uniformly. And female labourers are the major beneficiaries among hired labourers. The aggregation of labour-use pattern has shown that females earn much more than males from Bt cotton. This is due to the fact that cotton harvesting is largely carried out by hired female labourers, whose employment opportunities and returns to labour have improved remarkably. The elasticity of employment has been found to be high among medium and semi-medium farming categories and low in marginal and small categories. The new Bt technology is a big gain for the rural economy as a whole, since the rural employment growth has been the biggest concern in the state in the past decade.