Farmer Field School and Bt cotton in China [Elektronische Ressource] : an economic analysis / Lifeng Wu

Wu Lifeng

Informations

• Publié par: gottfried_wilhelm_leibniz_universitat_hannover
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 28
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Farmer Field School and Bt Cotton in China
– An Economic Analysis









Von der Naturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät
der Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover








zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines
Doktors der Gartenbauwissenschaften
- Dr. rer. hort. -







genehmigte Dissertation
von
M.Sc. Wu Lifeng
geboren am 12 Mai, 1971 in Anhui, China


2010

ii
































Referent: Prof. Dr. Hermann Waibel
Institut für Entwicklungs- und Agrarökonomik
Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät
der Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover

Korreferentin: Prof. Dr. Ulrike Grote
Institut für Umweltökonomik und Welthandel Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät
versität Hannover

Tag der Promotion: 16.02.2010 iii









This thesis is dedicated to my beloved daughter Wu Zhuoxuan and wife Liu Yaping
for their sacrificial love, and to the people who offered me guidance, support and
encouragement during the years of study.




















“The ideas that have lighted my way and, time after time, have given
me new courage to face life cheerfully have been Kindness, Beauty, and
Truth.”
Albert Einstein


iv
Acknowledgement
Working as a Ph.D. candidate in Hannover was a magnificent as well as challenging experience to
me. In all these years, many people were instrumental directly or indirectly in shaping up my
academic career. It was hardly possible for me to thrive in my doctoral work without the precious
support of those personalities. Here is a small tribute to all those people.
First of all, I wish to thank my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Hermann Waibel, for introducing me from a
world of plant protection to a fresh and fantastic domain transcending natural and social sciences.
It was only due to his valuable guidance, professional dedication, cheerful enthusiasm and
ever-friendly nature that I was able to complete my research work in a respectable manner. I am
very grateful to my second supervisor, Assistant Prof. Dr. Suwanna Praneetvatakul in Kasetsart
University in Thailand, who took care of me at the very beginning when I had probationary courses
in Bangkok and always gave me timely support whenever I needed. Sincere thanks are given to
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Grote for her profound professionalism which always brought me enlightenment
and inspiration at the frequent academic activities in our seminar room.
My deepest gratitude also goes to the leading group, especially Mr. Xia Jingyuan, Pan Xianzheng
and Zhong Tianrun in the National Agro-technical Extension and Service Center (NATESC)
within the Ministry of Agriculture of China. Without their support, I would have been tied to office
desk in Beijing and could only imagine study abroad in luxury dreams. I am deeply indebted to my
colleagues, particularly Mr. Wang Fuxiang and Wang Chunlin in the Division of Plant Quarantine
and Administrative Office in NATESC. My work on Ph.D. through years was built on their
sacrificial assumption of my workload in office. Their understanding, tolerance and
encouragement are the greatest gifts I ever had and I will treasure all my life. Heartfelt thanks are
due to Dr. Yang Puyun for sharing his profound expertise as an enthusiastic practitioner of
participatory extension. Sincere appreciation is extended to many other colleagues in NATESC
who have given me valuable support in one or another way.
I am grateful to numerous staff in the Plant Protection Stations of Anhui, Hubei and Shandong
Provinces and the nine sample Counties, represented by Mr. Wang Mingyong, Wang Shengqiao
and Lu Zengquan at provincial level and Mr. Tang Yinlai, Ni Xianwei and Mrs. Wang Lanying at
county level. I will never forget their excellent cooperation in facilitating data collection and
endless patience to answer queries about local conditions. The enumerators are warmly thanked
for their dedication to the field work. Every figure in the thesis is the crystallization of their sweat
in the fields. Thanks go particularly to more than 1500 farmers who willingly participated in the v
surveys. Their unflagging pursuit for better future on small cotton plots was the strongest
motivation for me to struggle for the true story behind cotton production.
This study could not have been possible without the FAO-EU IPM Program for Cotton in Asia.
The self-evaluation launched by the program had laid a sound foundation for this study. Special
thanks are conveyed to Dr. Gerd Walter-Echols, the formerly Environmental Impact Expert and
Dr. Peter A.C. Ooi, the formerly Chief Technical Advisor of the FAO-EU IPM Program for
Cotton in Asia for helping access voluminous background documents and for enlightenment by
their informative publications.
Many people in the Institute of Development and Agricultural Economics and the Institute for
Environmental Economics and World Trade at the Leibniz University of Hannover have
contributed to my intellectual stimulation and supported me in various ways. I am privileged to
have beneficial company of Bernd Hardeweg, Pradyot Ranjan Jena, Ibrahim Macharia, Piyatat
Pananurak, Sabine Liebenehm, Theda Gödecke, Chuthaporn Ngokkuen and many other friends.
Sincere thanks are due to Rudolf Witt, Marc Völker and Levison Chiwaula for their assistance in
reading and correcting the draft of this thesis. Special appreciation goes to Mrs. Renate Nause and
Mr. Florian Heinrichs for their continuous support. Those friends who used to work shoulder by
shoulder with me in Hannover should not be forgotten, among whom Diemuth Pemsl and
Hippolyte Djosse Affognon deserve much credit for their valuable suggestion to this study. As a
Ph.D. candidate registered with the Faculty of Natural Sciences while based in the Faculty of
Economics and Management, I have received indispensable support from the professors and other
personnel known or unknown to me in the former Faculty and would like to take this chance to
express my heartfelt thanks to them all.
Very special thanks are reserved for my family. I want to express my appreciation to my parents,
Wu Jinrong and Chen Airong, and parents in law, Liu Enfu and Ru Xiuzhi, for their endless
support and encouragement in all my professional endeavours. I am greatly indebted to my
daughter, Wu Zhuoxuan, who was just a little child in kindergarten at the outset of my Ph.D.
journey but is now a sensible girl in senior grade in primary school. I owe immeasurable debt to my
beloved wife, Liu Yaping, who has shared with me all the burdens, anxieties and pleasure of this
study. Her courage to take up the heavy responsibilities of life and work with frail shoulders is the
powerful source of my ambition to persist in the pursuit of a new career.
vi
Zusammenfassung
Landwirtschaftliche Beratung und der Einsatz genetisch veränderter Pflanzen, die eine Resistenz
gegen bestimmte Insekten aufweisen, werden in China als zwei Hauptstrategien angesehen mit
deren Hilfe dem Problem der zunehmenden Knappheit natürlicher Ressourcen in der
chinesischen Landwirtschaft begegnet werden kann. Das Konzept der Farmer Field School, eine
partizipatorische Form der landwirtschaftlichen Beratung, wurde 1989 in China eingeführt.
Bt-Baumwolle, eine bedeutende genetisch veränderte und dadurch gegen bestimmte Insekten
resistente Baumwollsorte, wurde etwas später im Jahr 1997 kommerzialisiert. Gegenwärtig wird
ein Großteil der chinesischen Baumwollanbaufläche mit Bt-Baumwolle bepflanzt. Die Einführung
der Farmer Field Schools (FFS) ist bis zum heutigen Zeitpunkt ähnlich beeindruckend verlaufen,
wenn auch in einem kleineren Gesamtausmaß, bedingt durch Beschränkungen bei der
Verfügbarkeit von externen Finanzierungsquellen. Es stellt sich jedoch die Frage welche
Auswirkungen beide Formen der Intervention auf die Produktivität von Landwirten und die
Nachhaltigkeit landwirtschaftlicher Produktion haben. Insbesondere hinsichtlich der
gemeinsamen Auswirkungen beider Eingriffe besteht ein Mangel an anspruchsvollen Studien
welcher mit methodischen Herausforderungen bei der Durchführung von entsprechenden
Wirkungsstudien einhergeht.
Die vorliegende Studie gehört zu den ersten Fallstudien welche sich eingehend mit den
ökonomischen Auswirkungen sowohl von Farmer Field Schools als auch von Bt-Baumwolle
beschäftigen. Das Hauptziel der vorliegenden Dissertation ist, zu einem besseren Verständnis der
Rolle von Farmer Field Schools und Bt-Baumwolle in China beizutragen und sich dabei mit
methodischen Herausforderungen hinsichtlich der Wirkungsanalyse zu befassen.
Die vorliegende Dissertation basiert zum Teil auf Makrodaten, die von den verantw