Annual Report 2006/07 - ETH - North-South Centre North-South ...

Research fellowFrank Eyhorn, NADEL, ETH ZurichSupervisorsUrs Wiesmann, CDE, University ofBerne / Ruedi Baumgartner, NADEL,ETH ZurichCollaboratorsMahesh Ramakrishnan, InternationalCompetence Centre for OrganicAgriculture, Bangalore, India / TushaarShah, IWMI, Anand, IndiaDurationDecember 2003 – December 2006Research Fellow Partnership Programme (RFPP)The impact of organic cotton cultivation onthe livelihood of Indian smallholdersThe aim of this doctoral project is to assess to what extentorganic farming could be a way to improve the livelihoodsof smallholders in developing countries in general and ofIndian cotton farmers in particular. The specific project objectivesare:• to provide a framework for a livelihood-oriented designand analysis of organic cotton production projects;• to generate profound data and knowledge on the agronomicperformance and the socio-economic impact oforganic cotton cultivation on farm households in theMaikaal project, Central India, compared to the prevailingconventional production system; and• to explore ways of utilising the potential of organic cottonfarming as a development option for smallholders.As the field work and data collection for the research projectwere already completed in 2005, the main tasks in 2006 wereto finalise data processing, to write the thesis and to publishthe results in a scientific journal. Uma Rani, who had collaboratedin the field work on the adoption analysis, visitedNADEL for three months in order to join in the interpretationof the qualitative results. The results were presentedin a NIDECO colloquium, a course contribution on “Gatheringinformation in development cooperation” at NADEL and in alecture on “Sustainable development: Foundations andapproaches from a socio-economic perspective” at theUniversity of Berne.2003 2004Gross margins from organic and conventional (Conv.) cotton fields in 2003 and 2004(Indian Rupees per hectare). The percentages in the upper sections of the barsindicate the deviation from mean income of conventional cotton fields (*p < 0.05).In order to make the results known among organisations,policy-makers and businesses working on cotton anddevelopment, the thesis was published as a book(www.vdf.ethz.ch/loadAllFrames.asp?showArtDetail=3111).After having completed his doctoral degree, Frank Eyhornjoined Helvetas (Swiss Association for InternationalCooperation) where he is in charge of the Organic CottonCompetence Centre and of organic cotton projects in Mali,Burkina Faso and Senegal.47