Reductions in insecticide use from adoption of Bt cotton in South Africa: impacts on economic performance and toxic load to the environment

The study reported presents the findings relating to commercial growing of genetically-modified Bt cotton in South Africa by a large sample of smallholder farmers over three seasons (1998/99, 1999/2000, 2000/01) following adoption. The analysis presents constructs and compares groupwise differences for key variables in Bt v. non-Bt technology and uses regressions to further analyse the production and profit impacts of Bt adoption. Analysis of the distribution of benefits between farmers due to the technology is also presented. In parallel with these socio-economic measures, the toxic loads being presented to the environment following the introduction of Bt cotton are monitored in terms of insecticide active ingredient (ai) and the Biocide Index. The latter adjusts ai to allow for differing persistence and toxicity of insecticides. Results show substantial and significant financial benefits to smallholder cotton growers of adopting Bt cotton over three seasons in terms of increased yields, lower insecticide spray costs and higher gross margins. This includes one particularly wet, poor growing season. In addition, those with the smaller holdings appeared to benefit proportionately more from the technology (in terms of higher gross margins) than those with larger holdings. Analysis using the Gini-coefficient suggests that the Bt technology has helped to reduce inequality amongst smallholder cotton growers in Makhathini compared to what may have been the position if they had grown conventional cotton. However, while Bt growers applied lower amounts of insecticide and had lower Biocide Indices (per ha) than growers of non-Bt cotton, some of this advantage was due to a reduction in non-bollworm insecticide. Indeed, the Biocide Index for all farmers in the population actually increased with the introduction of Bt cotton. The results indicate the complexity of such studies on the socio-economic and environmental impacts of GM varieties in the developing world.

April 2010: South Carolina 2009 Notable State Documents

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Relação entre os atributos de qualidade de um serviço de reabilitação ambulatorial e os padrões do modelo de acreditação Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations : a visão do cliente

Mostra evidências de relação entre os atributos de qualidade de um serviço de realibilitação ambulatorial sob a percepção do cliente e os padrões do modelo internacional de acreditação de serviço de saúde.

The first case study of a thunderstorm in South Africa based on dual- Doppler radar observations

On 27 March 1991, an isolated thunderstorm passed between the two CSIR Doppler radars, spaced about 45km apart. Both radars simultaneously recorded Doppler data of the storm, and a detailed case study during an 11-min period is presented. Air motions synthesized from these data provide the first three-dimensional display of Doppler-derived wind fields within a multicell storm on the Transvaal Highveld. Regions of high divergence values (10 -2s -1) at low levels were found mostly in close proximity to reflectivity maxima (45-51 dBZ), which is consistent with findings from North America, that gravitational loading by the precipitation plays a key role in the initiation and maintenance of downdraughts. -from Authors

Progress of the Latin American and the Caribbean region towards sustainable development in the issues: human settlements, sanitation, water. Regional preparatory process for the Twelfth Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development

Includes bibliography