We chose this predominantly dry district in central Tamil Nadu as the entire cotton-growing area of 80,000 acres (largest in the state) is under BT cotton cultivation. What’s more, the farmers have seen both the eras: they grew the conventional cotton varieties for decades till the massive crop failure of 2002-03. The magnitude of loss was so great that they gave up on cotton for the next few years and shifted to cultivating maize. Only after the introduction of BT cotton (in 2004-05) did the farmers gradually return to their preferred crop.