Nearly three-fourths of Indians live in rural areas and rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. Unfortunately, these rural farmers are also the poorest in the country.

Most of these farmers have just small parcels of land, two hectares or less, and their repeated spraying of pesticides is costly. These sprayings could climb to as many as 15 applications in a growing season, effectively wiping out the farmer financially before killing the bollworm infestation.

Cotton crops were severely damaged by these infestations, diminishing potential yields and profits as much as 40 percent to 70 percent.

But the cycle of poverty went beyond the individual farmer. Outside of agriculture, the textile sector was suffering due to a lack of high-quality domestic cotton. And this poverty even cascaded through the villages and communities, where there was a lack of permanent shops or marketplaces, clean drinking water or medical care.

The introduction of Monsanto’s Bollgard^® cotton seed in India has significantly reduced farmers’ need for insecticides and has resulted in higher-yielding cotton crops. Additionally, reducing the need for multiple pesticide treatments has allowed farmers to save money and has improved the livelihoods of millions of farmers.

BY 2009, BOLLGARD WAS BEING PLANTED ON 90% OF INDIA’S COTTON AREA

Our joint venture with Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech (MMB), a well-respected Indian seed company, has provided us with the infrastructure needed to reach these farmers and deliver seed.

The results have been enormous. Average cotton yields jumped from 3-4 quintals per acre to 600-1,000 kgs per acre. The volume of insecticides needed to control bollworm was reduced by 20,000 metric tons annually. By 2009, just seven years after we introduced Bollgard, farmers were planting the seed technology on 90 percent of India’s cotton area.

The lives of the Indian farmer and his family were improved. They found themselves lifted out of poverty, able to save money for the first time. Textile factories were beginning to come to life again. Their communities reaped the results as well. An independent study found that in villages where farmers had adopted cotton, economic activity was more robust. Specifically, there were more shops, permanent marketplaces, better provision for electricity and drinking water, and better medical care for women and children, which researchers attributed to higher farmer incomes.

Our introduction of Bollgard cotton has been a commercial success by any standard. But perhaps more than just the numbers, this technology has done more: it’s improved the livelihoods of millions of farmers, their families and communities.