An Analysis of Bt Cotton Cultivation in Punjab, Pakistan Using the Agriculture Decision Support System (ADSS)

Although commercial cultivation of Bt cotton was not officially allowed in Pakistan until very recently, the area under Bt cultivation has increased every year, and during the 2009/2010 cotton season it stood at around 70% of all cropland. This trend has raised many interesting questions, and this article attempts to answer some of these questions using the pest-scouting data of 3,000+ cotton farmers collected during the 2005/2006 season. We used the Agriculture Decision Support System to process and analyze the primary raw data. This article shows the relationship between Bt and non-Bt cotton cultivation with reference to (1) farm size, (2) pest and pesticide groups, (3) predators and pesticide sprays, (4) sucking pests, and (5) chewing pests.