biotechnology agriculture Articles
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Changing intellectual property regimes: implications for developing country agriculture
The revolutions in biotechnology and intellectual property protection began in the developed world. The USA led the global transformation of intellectual property protection, and has been the leader in commercialisation of biotechnology in agriculture. Now all members of the World Trade Organization are committed to offer intellectual property protections for agriculture. Will the benefits of ...
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Stakeholder perceptions towards agricultural biotechnology in Mexico
National debates on the risks and benefits of agricultural biotechnology are strongly framed by a country's particular cultural, historical and environmental circumstances, as well as political and economic interests. The following study uses the case of Mexico to investigate stakeholder attitudes in the public debate on agricultural biotechnology in developing countries. For this purpose, a ...
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Forces influencing developing country views of agricultural biotechnology: an analysis of training programme participants' perceptions
Agricultural biotechnology is expanding around the world, but societal acceptance remains an important issue. Michigan State University (MSU) has developed and implemented an agricultural biotechnology short course for developing countries. Four courses were taught to regional groups in 2002–2003 and eight more were taught to geographically diverse groups in 2004–2008. One half day of each course ...
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Making use of biotechnology applications in Turkish agriculture: Why is it not yet happening?
One of the primary challenges for developing countries is to create new opportunities for sustainable economic development through the use of new technologies such as biotechnology. In this context, the use of agricultural biotechnology to produce cheap biofuel made from agricultural crops as well as agricultural waste (cellulose) might have a great potential to promote rural development in ...
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Agricultural biotechnology policies and research investments in Mexico
This paper examines the agricultural biotechnology research situation in Mexico. In addition to providing insights into the institutional and policy evolution, it analyses a quantitative survey of biotechnology investments in the 14 most important national public and private research organisations from 1985 to 1997. During this time period, Mexico experienced a noteworthy biotechnology ...
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Are developing-country policies and investments promoting research and research partnerships in agricultural biotechnology?
This article presents findings from two studies of public-sector research on agricultural biotechnology. The first focuses on national agricultural research organisations and universities in developing countries, while the second focuses on public?private research collaborations with international agricultural research centres. Findings suggest that a number of developing countries are, in fact, ...
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Research prizes: a new kind of incentive for innovation in African agriculture
This paper identifies market failures that limit agricultural R&D for Africa and other resource-poor environments, and proposes a way to complement existing institutions with cash prizes for the dissemination of successful new technologies adopted by low-income farmers. The proposed prize institution would use agronomic experiments and farm surveys to document the value of innovations after their ...
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Are genetically modified (GM) crops a commercial risk for Africa?
What risks might Africa face if it decided to plant genetically modified (GM) agricultural crops? A rough calculation based on current export profiles for one sampling of eastern and southern African countries suggests that the commercial export risks incurred outside of Africa would be quite small. Most of Africa's exports of goods that might be considered GM currently go to other African ...
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Risk as narrative value: a theoretical framework for facilitating the biotechnology debate
Maintaining the global public good character of agricultural biotechnology requires the blending of many different values. Sometimes, however, there are large gaps between the values held by different stakeholder groups. Furthermore, there is a contradiction between what people say they value, and how they actually behave. Articulating and overcoming gaps and contradictions is key to reducing ...
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Managing agricultural biotechnology for sustainable development: the case of semi-arid India
Managing agricultural biotechnology for sustainable development demands more than research and intellectual property rights policies. Economic and regulatory institutions conducive to application of intrinsically sustainable technologies are also required. From an interdisciplinary development research perspective, it is argued that sustainability of Indian agriculture and food crop production ...
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Agricultural biotechnology R&D and innovations in Nigeria
This study examined the nature and extent of the agricultural biotechnology R&D and innovations in Nigeria. Data were collected from the Directors, Heads of Crop Units and Research Scientists in the agricultural research institutes using structured and unstructured questionnaires and interview schedules. The data collected were analysed using frequencies, means and percentages. The study revealed ...
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Transgenic crops, EU precaution, and developing countries
Agricultural biotechnologies have the potential to offer higher incomes for farmers in developing countries and lower-priced and better-quality food, feed and fibre. That potential is being heavily compromised, however, because of strict regulatory systems in the European Union and elsewhere governing transgenically modified (GM) crops. This paper examines why the EU has taken the extreme ...
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Agricultural innovation and economic growth in Africa: renewing international cooperation
Rising food prices and the associated political upheavals have rekindled interest in international cooperation on food security in particular and economic development in general. This paper argues that efforts to promote food security in sub-Saharan Africa need take into account three key issues: food security is inseparable from economic development; science and innovation are a necessary part ...
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The income and production effects of biotech crops globally 1996-2009
This paper provides an assessment of the economic impact at the farm level of agricultural biotechnology on global agriculture. It examines the economic impacts on yields, key costs of production, direct farm income, indirect (non-pecuniary) farm level income effects and impacts on the production base of the four main crops of soybeans, corn, cotton and canola. The analysis shows that there have ...
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The income and production effects of biotech crops globally 1996–2009
This paper provides an assessment of the economic impact at the farm level of agricultural biotechnology on global agriculture. It examines the economic impacts on yields, key costs of production, direct farm income, indirect (non-pecuniary) farm level income effects and impacts on the production base of the four main crops of soybeans, corn, cotton and canola. The analysis shows that there have ...
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Learning from the Terminator debacle
Monsanto's 1999 decision not to acquire "sterile seed technology", otherwise known as the "Terminator", was in response to widespread pressure. The technology's commercial potential was "uncertain", and the company's image and share price were taking a beating. Potential international suitors risked being scared off. Few people anywhere could find any redeeming ...
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Plant biotechnology and agricultural supply industry restructuring
The strategic horizon of the agricultural supply industry (pesticides and seeds) is darkened by grave uncertainties. These are the result of the growing multiform resistance of society to the present or potential risks of genetically modified organisms to health and the environment. They are also the consequences of counter-strategies implemented by economic players who are close to final ...
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Regulatory factors affecting the agri-food biotechnology sector in the European Union
In Europe, in addition to public opposition to genetically modified food, the slow pace of development in agricultural and food biotechnology has been attributed to the lack of basic preconditions for commercial and innovative activities. The role and justification of a significant degree of regulation related to crop biotechnology is discussed. We try to clarify the existing broad structures ...
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The economic impacts of second generation Bt cotton in West Africa: empirical evidence from Burkina Faso
West Africa has been slow in adopting agricultural biotechnology. The most progressive stance has been taken by Burkina Faso, which began field testing Bt cotton in 2003. This paper reports the first three years of Bt cotton field trials, which found that Bt cotton increased cotton yields by an average of 20% and reduced insecticide applications by two-thirds. While the technical success of Bt ...
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Controversy about agricultural technology lessons from the green revolution
The development and introduction of transgenically modified organisms to enhance crop and animal production has generated considerable controversy about potential food safety and environmental impacts. The introduction, in tropical Latin America and Asia, of high yielding varieties of wheat, maize and rice beginning in the late 1960s was also controversial. Critics argued that the new technology ...
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