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

By most measures, adoption of first generation crop biotechnologies in the United States and elsewhere has been extremely fast. Yet, only modest research effort has been devoted to understanding why producers in different parts of the world have adopted these technologies at such rapid rates. In this paper, we analyze producer decisions on whether 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 interdependent adoption decisions. Furthermore, US cotton producers partially adopt one or more of the biotechnologies, probably, as a way of optimizing their use through “learning by doing” thereby incorporating complex dynamic considerations in their decision process. By most measures, adoption of first generation crop biotechnologies in the United States and elsewhere has been extremely fast. Yet, only modest research effort has been devoted to understanding why producers in different parts of the world have adopted these technologies at such rapid rates. In this paper, we analyze producer decisions on whether 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 interdependent adoption decisions. Furthermore, US cotton producers partially adopt one or more of the biotechnologies, probably, as a way of optimizing their use through “learning by doing” thereby incorporating complex dynamic considerations in their decision process