ABSTRACT
Under a clear November sky, a group of West African farmers takes a break from harvesting their cotton. The men survey the crop and dare to hope that the harvest will be better than last year, when a drought meant they were barely able to repay their loans for the expensive inputs used to produce cotton. The women participate in the harvest even though some of their own food crop fields still need attention and there are scores of tasks to be done at home. They need a good harvest, because cotton offers one of the few possibilities for earning the cash that is used to pay school fees and buy medicine and other essentials. In addition to their concerns about the harvest and the price they will receive, these farmers now find themselves at the centre of a worldwide controversy about agricultural biotechnology. The news they get on the radio and in discussions with other farmers is difficult to interpret, and the debates mostly take place far away, but the farmers hear there is a new type of cotton that resists some insects and lowers their need to buy insecticides. Some people argue that this will help them save money and keep up with other cotton-producing countries, while others say that it will put them at the mercy of powerful foreign companies and untested technologies.
