Ex-ante economic impact assessment of fruit and shoot borer-resistant Bt eggplant crop production in the Philippines

This study analyzed the potential impacts of the adoption of Bt eggplant technology on yield, cost, and profitability of eggplant production in the Philippines. To assess the income and cost effects of Bt eggplant, a farm level budget was constructed from primary and secondary sets of data and information using a with and without with-and-without framework of analysis. A partial budget was constructed to determine the incremental benefits from and costs of adopting the Bt eggplant. The size and distribution of benefits from Bt eggplant were quantified using the economic surplus method Sensitivity analyses were performed to determine the effect of varying the assumptions used in the economic surplus analysis. Results showed that the adoption of Bt eggplant has a high potential to increase marketable yield reduce costs and increase net profits. The partial budget analysis showed that Bt eggplant would give a net incremental benefit of around P 50, 000 per hectare compared to the non-Bt eggplant used by farmers. These additional benefits were realized from increased marketable yields and savings from reduced insecticide and labor costs. Bt eggplant, once it is commercialized and adopted would be economically superior to current technology from an investor's standpoint because the NPV and IRR are both positive and large. Even if the assumptions used in the base case assumption, e.g., yield gain, cost reduction, and adoption rate would be only one-half of their assumed values, investment in the development and commercialization of Bt eggplant technology would still be profitable.