The opinions of first adopters in the introduction of Bt maize in Spain: A success story

Spain is one of the few EU countries that adopted genetically modified maize as a crop (1998) and has continued to harvest it ever since. This article aims to contribute to the history of the adoption of transgenic maize in the EU, where the Mediterranean (Sesamia nonagrioides) and European (Ostrinia nubilalis) corn borers are two of the most destructive pests. Our aim is to identify Spanish farmers' motivations and opinions on adopting this technology. Our model is a binary logistic regression that estimates the probability of adopting Bt maize. Our results reveal that the odds of adopting Bt are at least 44.0 times greater if the farm is in an area with corn borer infestation episodes than if it is not. The odds of adopting Bt are at least 4.9 times greater if farmers place a high importance on economic outcomes than if they do not. More adopters than non-adopters believe that Bt corn causes less damage to the environment than sulphates against the borer. No other opinion variable was clearly significant. We conclude that the most important reasons for Bt adoption were exposure to corn borer and concerns about the economic losses the borer could cause to the crop.