Documented statistics re the number of cotton farmers are not available for most cotton-growing countries and hence the data in Table 6 are based on estimates for some countries. The number of cotton farmers for developing countries may be conservative for some countries where farms are registered in the official records as one farm by landowners, but in practice are actually fragmented and farmed by many tenant farmers. This can lead to a significant under-estimate of the number of cotton farmers, and an over- estimate of the average size of cotton holdings. Therefore, the data in Table 6 is intended only as a guide as to the order of magnitude of the number and size of farms, rather than precise estimates. The number of farmers in China alone can vary from 9 to 13 million depending on the area planted to Bt cotton (Huang 2002); the average of 11 million is used for the number of cotton farmers in China in Table 6. It is estimated that there are approximately 20 million cotton farmers worldwide (Table 6), of which about 97% (19.3 million) farm in the developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, and 2% (425,000) in the CIS and West Asia countries. Less than 1% of cotton farmers worldwide grow cotton in the industrial countries; the US has approximately 30,000 cotton farmers, Australia 1,200, with the balance in Greece and Spain.

Of the 19.3 million cotton farmers that grow cotton in the developing world about 89% (17.1 million) farm in the developing countries of Asia, 2.5 million in Africa (10% of cotton farmers globally) and about 150,000 farmers (<1%) in Latin America. The three countries of China, India and Pakistan alone represent 16.5 million cotton farmers or 83% of all cotton farmers globally. A very high percentage (>90%) of cotton farmers in developing countries farm about 2 hectares of cotton or less, with farmers in north and east China growing, on average, less than 0.5 hectare of cotton. Average cotton holdings per farm in India and Pakistan are approximately 2 hectares, while Africa and South East Asia are also about 2 hectares or less; however, in practice, the cotton holdings may be significantly smaller in size because of record misrepresentations. By and large, cotton farms in developing countries are small, and a high proportion are farmed by resource-poor farmers. Average cotton holdings are larger in Latin America (8 hectares) due to bigger farms in countries such as Argentina. Average cotton holding in the US is approximately 190 hectares and 330 hectares for Australia.

Thus, of the 20 million cotton farmers worldwide, most (97 %, over 19 million) are small farmers in developing countries growing about 2 hectares or less cotton. In terms of number of potential beneficiaries from Bt cotton, it is clear that small resource-poor farmers in developing countries are the significant practitioners in cotton production globally; consequently they stand to gain the most from Bt cotton if they can have access to the technology. Currently, from 4 to 5 million small farmers grow small to modest areas of cotton in about 30 developing countries which have not adopted Bt cotton and hence farmers do not have access to a vital competitive technology that could provide them with significant environmental, economic, health and social benefits. Cotton is often the only cash crop for resource-poor cotton farmers and a crop failure because of insect pests can have a disastrous effect on their livelihoods. Cotton is also the principal export of many of the cotton-growing developing countries and production failures due to the major lepidopteran insect pests, for which Bt cotton confers protection, can have a devastating effect on national economies which are already carrying horrendous debts and are suffering in the current global economic recession.