Impacts du coton-Bt sur les bilans financiers des sociétés cotonnières et des paysans au Burkina Faso

Abstract

Since 2008, Burkina Faso has been using Bt-cotton through engineered African varieties. The study - covering the 2008-2013 period - is a first ex post assessment of the financial impacts for cotton companies on the one hand, and producers taken on the whole, on the other hand. The study is original in taking into account the imperfect engineering of the varieties used. Impacts were assessed for a real situation of Bt-cotton use compared to a reference situation with no Bt-cotton use. Impacts were also evaluated in comparison to the scenario expected when a decision to adopt was made, for which the assumed 30% yield increase did not come about. Impacts were evaluated by the partial budget method, considering susceptibility to three criteria in industrial, commercial and world price areas. For farmers, the financial impact was positive, although the profitability rate of the extra cost of Bt cottonseeds was barely acceptable. For cotton companies, impacts were modest and became negative when world price dropped from its historic high as a result of fiber production shortfalls, fiber length decreases and discount at export sales. The commercial image of a country usually supplying quality cotton was negatively affected. The adoption of Bt-cotton in Burkina Faso is a rare case of technological evolution implying diverging impacts to the two main types of players. Potentially, this outcome could hurt the funding mechanism of research for further technical change.