New developments in production practices and technological advances in seed genetics give cotton farmers new options to consider in their production decisions. This study was conducted to determine allocative efficiency and cost effectiveness of growing conventional and transgenic cotton varieties under alternative cultural practices in South Georgia. Conventional, Roundup Ready (glyphosate resistant), Bt (Bacillus thurengiensis), Roundup Ready/Bt, and Buctril Resistant (bromoxynil resistant) cotton varieties were compared for conventional tillage and strip-till cultural practices. Data for the study was obtained from a survey of cotton producers in South Georgia conducted in the early spring of 2000. A linear programming model, specifically data envelopment analysis (DEA), was used to compare costs and returns associated with various combinations of tillage and technology. In this model, the linear program views input/output combinations of individual fields as separate data management units (dmu’s).

Ninety-two percent of fields in the model’s frontier of efficient dmu’s utilized transgenic varieties. And 70 percent of fully efficient fields utilized strip-tillage. Cost comparisons across tillage practices revealed that strip tillage allowed considerable savings on most variable inputs. While the cost structure was similar across varieties, the use of transgenic varieties typically resulted in higher yields. Overall, transgenic fields and strip till fields were 11 percent more efficient than conventional fields. These results suggest that combining genetically modified cotton varieties with the strip till cultural practice yields a more efficient use of inputs relative to the level of output. See tables 1 and 2.

In addition to comparing DEA rank, we also averaged yield and variable input costs for all fields of each tillage practice. By comparing average yield and input costs of all strip-till fields to those reported on conventional tillage fields, we have a simple comparison of variable costs and yield for conventional tillage vs. strip-till. See table 3.