Understanding the Adoption of Cotton Biotechnologies in the US: Firm Level Evidence

By most measures, adoption of first generation crop biotechnologies in the UnitedStates and elsewhere has been extremely fast. Yet, only modest research effort has beendevoted to understanding why producers in different parts of the world have adoptedthese technologies at such rapid rates. In this paper, we analyze producer decisions onwhether to adopt three separate cotton biotechnologies in the US and to what extent.We find that US cotton producers tend to choose bundles of conventional technologies,agrobiotechnologies and relevant agronomic practices out of many possible ones.Hence, their behavior is characterized by multiple simultaneous and interdependentadoption decisions. Furthermore, US cotton producers partially adopt one or more ofthe biotechnologies, probably, as a way of optimizing their use through “learning bydoing” thereby incorporating complex dynamic considerations in their decision process. By most measures, adoption of first generation crop biotechnologies in the UnitedStates and elsewhere has been extremely fast. Yet, only modest research effort has beendevoted to understanding why producers in different parts of the world have adoptedthese technologies at such rapid rates. In this paper, we analyze producer decisions onwhether to adopt three separate cotton biotechnologies in the US and to what extent.We find that US cotton producers tend to choose bundles of conventional technologies,agrobiotechnologies and relevant agronomic practices out of many possible ones.Hence, their behavior is characterized by multiple simultaneous and interdependentadoption decisions. Furthermore, US cotton producers partially adopt one or more ofthe biotechnologies, probably, as a way of optimizing their use through “learning bydoing” thereby incorporating complex dynamic considerations in their decision process.