Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 6. The Impact of adopting Bt corn: Elasticities 2005, 2010
1
Variable
Elasticity with respect to the probability of adoption
2005 2010
Net returns 0.17 0.23
Yield 0.17 0.23
Seed 0.1 0.21
Insecticide NS NS
1
Elasticity measures the responsiveness of a variable (e.g., s, yield) to a change in
another (e.g., adoption rate). It is unit free and always expressed in percentage
terms.
Bt crops have insect-resistant traits
NS = Not significant.
Sources: 2005: Fernandez-Cornejo and Wechsler (2012). 2010: New analysis by
Economic Research Service. (Model results using 2010 ARMS corn data. Model
specification similar to that used by Fernandez-Cornejo and Wechsler, 2012).
Table 7. HT soybean adopters and non-adopters, 2006
Variable
Units
*
Yield
Per acre yields, in bushels
45.6
40.6
5.0
Total herbicide use Pounds AI per acre 1.36 1.05 0.31 NS
Glyphosate use Pounds per acre 1.23 0.38 0.85
***
Other herbicides use Pounds per acre 0.13 0.66 -0.53
**1
*
,
**
, and
***
Indicates statistical significance at 10-, 5-, and 1-percent level,
respectively. NS = Not significant.
1
Significant at the 5-percent level when using standard procedures but not significant
(p value = 0.14) when using the jacknife procedure to estimate variances (Kott,
1998). HT crops have herbicide tolerance traits.
Source: Economic Research Service using data from 2006 Agricultural Resource
Management Survey soybean survey.
Stacked-trait seeds tend to have higher yields.
An analysis of ARMS corn
data indicates that stacked seeds (seeds with several GE traits) have higher
yields than conventional seeds or seeds with only one GE trait. For example,
2010 ARMS data show that conventional corn seeds had an average yield of
