Variety market development: a Bt-cotton cropping factor and constraint in China
Résumé
In China, Bt-cotton varieties have been marketed since 1997 to help control attacks of some cotton pests, notably Helicoverpa armigera. It is estimated that Bt-cotton is currently grown on about 70% of the total Chinese cotton-growing area. Most studies have explained this broad distribution by the specific advantages of Bt-cotton, particularly the reduction in pesticide use but this has been put into question in more recent papers, which also raised the issue of seed prices. In our study based on datasets seldom used in earlier analyses, we argue that Bt-cotton use in China is related to the development of the cotton variety market through a two-phase phenomenon. Bt-cotton use has resulted from the development of the variety market facilitated by a favourable legal framework since the mid-1990s, but the current stiff competition is responsible for quality uncertainty and possibly for high seed pricing, thereby threatening the profitability and continued use of Bt-cotton, in addition to the development of the variety market. The quality seed subsidy policy was launched in 2007 to rectify the disorder in the variety and seed market, but the effectiveness of this regulation measure is debatable.