Estimation of Benefit Cost Ratio of Bt Cotton Farmers in Pakistan

A study was conducted to investigate the impact of Bt cotton cultivation on the profitability of farmers in Khanewal district, Punjab, Pakistan. The researchers collected the cost of various stages in the production technology, yield and prices of inputs and outputs to estimate the financial and economic returns of the Bt cotton farmers. They also computed the benefit cost ratio for both economic and financial returns.

Results showed that large farmers earned more net revenue and gross margin as compared with medium and small farmers due to more inputs induction for the sake of more profitability. The benefit cost ratio (BCR) analysis revealed that BCR with imputed cost is less than one in all the cases, i.e. small, medium and large while it is more than one in the case of without imputed cost. This means that farmers with imputed cost are unable to get profit. Furthermore, financial analysis showed that BCR is highest for small farmers followed by large farmers. This may be attributed to savings in labor costs as family members are engaged in all the operations of crop cultivation.

The research article is available at Science International.