Brand-Variety Performance Information System for Crops in India: A Study and Design for Cotton

Abstract

Brand-variety performance information is critical for small farmers in India since every year they need to make crucial decisions on which brand-variety seeds to plant. The farmers’ livelihoods from their small farms and all the inputs used depend critically on this decision. Yet no systematic information is available, and year after year the farmers have to decide based on guesses, hearsay and opinions which are frequently imperfect or even biased. The companies and government also need to know about the actual performance of brands-varieties in different areas so as to be able to recommend correctly. Official crop-cutting surveys for actual yield assessment are, however, a regular feature of all states and also collect some information on inputs including brand-variety. Yet, this information is hardly processed and utilized. Cotton is a major cash crop in India but has substantial problems particularly from extensive pest damage and poor yields. Poor brand-variety decisions frequently lead to crop failures in cotton and also farmer suicides. An assessment is done on the performance of varieties using a survey across four Indian states and 694 farmers, covering pest resistance, yields, quality, price/ value of output, cost of cultivation, and profits. On this basis, a brand-variety performance information system is proposed which would use the regular crop-cutting surveys, analyze the information, and make it available to the farmers so that they can make informed and better decisions on brand-variety. This would reduce crop failures and help provide correct advice to the farmers in diverse agro-ecological settings.