Information System for Brand-Variety Performance and Decisions: Study and Application for Cotton in India

Information on brand-variety performance is critical for small farmers in India since every year they need to make crucial decisions on which brand-variety seeds to plant. The livelihoods from their small farms and returns on all the inputs used depend critically on this decision. Yet no systematic information is available to them on this, and year after year the farmers are forced to decide based on guesses, hearsay and opinions which are frequently imperfect or even biased. Even companies and governments need to know about the actual performance of brand-varieties in different areas so as to be able to recommend correctly. [W.P. No. 2009-09-03]