Many studies report that Bt cotton has led to significant yield gains, reduced insecticide use, or both in different countries. With rare exception, these studies examine adoption in one region in isolation from adoption in others. This article summarizes the global impacts of Bt cotton adoption in the United States and China based on results from a three-region model of the world cotton market. In 2001, adoption of Bt cot-ton in China and the United States increased world cotton production by 0.7% and reduced the world cotton price by 1.4 cents per pound. Global economic benefits were $836 million. Consumer surplus increased $63 million. Chinese producers gained by $428 million and US producers by $179 million. The fall in world price reduced rest-of-world (ROW) producer surplus by $349 million. Net rest-of-world benefits were $69 million, however, because purchaser gains outweighed producer losses.

The cotton processing industry is a distinct sector of China’s rural economy which recently underwent a momentous transition from plan to market. China is the world’s largest producer as well as consumer of cotton, and cotton processing links the agricultural production of this important commodity to China’s booming textile industry. Alpermann examines the political economy of the cotton processing industry, analyzes the process of cotton policy making and discusses reform outcomes on a national scale and the central state’s response. He then goes on to examine the implementation of economic transformation and institutional change in two traditional cotton-growing regions, looking at how local governments and the former monopolist cope with the changes brought about by marketization. Studying the cotton industry provides a lens through which to observe the changes in the way the state governs the economy during China’s transition and helps to assess the diverging claims about the nature of the political economy in China. As such China's Cotton Industry is an essential read for anyone studying Chinese business, econmics or politics.

Overall goal of this paper is to re-examine findings of earlier efforts that analysed the effect of Bt cotton adoption in 1999 with two follow-up surveys conducted in 2000 and 2001. Our survey data on yields and econometric analyses indicate that the adoption of Bt cotton continues to increase output per hectare in 2000 and 2001 and that the yield gains extend to all provinces in our sample. More importantly, Bt cotton farmers also increased their incomes by reducing use of pesticides and labour inputs. Finally, survey data shows that Bt cotton continues to have positive environmental impacts by reducing pesticide use. We provide evidence that farmers have less health problems because of reduced pesticide use. We conclude with evidence that China is not unique and that there are lessons for other developing countries in their experience.

This volume advances the claim that the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) adopted in 2001 is the only existing international agreement with the potential to promote food security, conservation of biodiversity and equity. However, for germplasm-rich countries, national interests come into conflict with the global interest. This work shows that the pursuit of national interests is counterproductive when it comes to maintaining genetic resources, food-security and rent-seeking and that optimally, the coverage of the FAO Treaty should be widened to apply to all crops.

This atlas describes the West African region, its population, settlement, territories, its economy and its vulnerabilities. It analyses the developments and the ways in which West Africa is conforming to a constantly changing global environment.