Bt cotton and employment effects for female agricultural laborers in Pakistan: An application of double-hurdle model

Shahzad Kouser, Matin Qaim and Abedullah Abedullah

No 212014, 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy from International Association of Agricultural Economists

Abstract: The literature dealing with impacts of Bt cotton is growing. Nevertheless, the question remains about how this technology can contribute to employment generation of rural poor. Bt-related yield benefit may intensify production and enhance labor demand for harvesting. Building on farm survey data of 352 cotton farmers in the South Punjab of Pakistan and using double-hurdle model, Bt employments effects are analyzed. Estimates show that Bt adoption has increased the probability and demand for hired labor by 6% and 17%, respectively. Cotton picking is labor intensive and female dominated activity in Pakistan. Labor disaggregation by gender enunciates the employment effects of Bt cotton for rural women, who belong to the neglected group of the society. Hence, Bt technology can play a vital role to poverty alleviation if seed quality and credit constraints are properly addressed.

Keywords: Crop Production/Industries; Labor and Human Capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-dev
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/212014/files/K ... l%20laborers-599.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:iaae15:212014

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.212014

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy from International Association of Agricultural Economists Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().