crop genetic Articles
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Sustainable utilisation of crop genetic diversity through property rights mechanisms: the case of coffee genetic resources in Ethiopia
The legally binding 'International treaty on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture' provides a framework to ensure access to crop genetic resources, technologies, and internationally agreed funding. However, this treaty applies only for a list of selected crops. Other crops, as for instance coffee, are not included. Besides other issues, the question arises how to design the access and ...
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History, achievements, and current status of genetic resources conservation
This paper has been written to look back at the early period of crop genetic resources conservation and inform readers of what has been achieved so far and what needs to be done in the future. The recognition of the value of crop genetic resources and early efforts at collecting germplasm by pioneer plant explorers, such as F.N. Meyer and N.I. Vavilov, and some of the strategies they employed are ...
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Risk, genetically modified food and the US/EU divide
The Genetically Modified (GM) food and crops issue illustrates some key contemporary differences between the EU and the USA on environmental issues. These differences have been parallel to the apparently stronger influence of environmentalists since 1990 on a range of issues in the EU, compared to the USA. Beck's 'Risk Society' theory has general resonance with contemporary western attitudes to ...
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How negative product attributes alter consumer perceptions of folate biofortified rice in a high risk region of China
Folate biofortified rice is recently developed as a future strategy to reduce folate deficiency, particularly in poor, rural high risk regions, like Shanxi Province. Although 62% of rice consumers in this Chinese region are likely to accept this GM product, biofortification could negatively change product attributes, which may hamper acceptance. The results of this ex–ante evaluation show ...
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The economic impact of transgenic crops in developing countries: a note on the methods
A vast literature has accumulated since crop varieties with transgenic resistance to insects and herbicide tolerance were released to farmers in 1996 and 1997. A comparatively minor segment of this literature consists of studies conducted by agricultural economists to measure the farm-level impact of transgenic crop varieties, the size and distribution of the economic benefits from adopting them ...
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Living the promise? The role of the private sector in enabling small-scale farmers to benefit from agro-biotech
Biotechnology and transgenetic crops (tGMOs) hold great promises as part of integrated solutions for poor and small-scale farmers. The private sector, which to date controls most releases of tGMOs globally, has combined philanthropy and commercialisation to this end. Yet few benefits have materialised. This narrative paper surveys and provides a framework for how multinational companies transfer ...
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The socio–economic impacts of currently commercialised genetically engineered crops
A substantial and growing body of literature now exists on the socio–economic impacts of genetically engineered (GE) crops. While the bulk of literature has focused on the primary impacts of commercialised GE technology, in terms of changes in yields, costs and profitability, researchers have increasingly addressed a range of additional questions such as the distribution of impacts across groups, ...
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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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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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Naked oats for improving human nutrition: Genetic and agronomic variability of grain bioactive components
The impact of genotype, environment, and rotation on the variability of important bioactive compounds (protein and β-glucan) was evaluated in the grains of seven naked and two husked oat (Avena sativa L.) genotypes, grown in a set of trials in 2001–2002 and 2002–2003 in two Italian locations in winter seeding. Each trial was composed of two experiments, corresponding to different rotation ...
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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 biotechnology development towards sustainable goals: can we make it more pro-poor?
Agriculture continues to change – driven by innovation and new technology. Genetics and breeding have revolutionised agricultural systems, and the 'Green Revolution', based on higher yielding varieties of dwarf wheat and rice, is arguably the greatest achievement in food crop development. Gene technologies now offer additional opportunities, where new traits improving crop protection ...
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The biotechnological food revolution: exploring the governance issues
Although advocates of genetically modified (GM) crops argue that such technology can enhance food output volumes, critics of the technology raise a number of concerns about the long-term effects of introducing GM inputs into the food chain. This paper reviews the evolution of GM food technology and identifies the scientific risks – to the consumer and the environment – arising from the ...
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The GMO experience in North and South America
This paper surveys the level and distribution of economic impacts of GMOs in the Americas from 1996–2004. Key institutional factors influencing GMO diffusion are discussed. In 2004 the Americas accounted for 94% of world GMO area. Diffusion has been concentrated; four countries, four crops and two traits account for the vast majority of area. The economic benefits of the diffusion of GMOs have ...
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Is genetically engineered technology a good alternative to pesticide use: the case of GE eggplant in India
Are pesticides used efficiently in eggplant cultivation? Is Genetically Engineered (GE) eggplant a good alternative to pesticide use? Building on the literature on damage control specification for production functions, we estimated the pesticide productivity for eggplant, using data from a farm-level survey conducted in Maharashtra, India. Even though the intensity of pesticide use by Open ...
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Trading off risks and benefits when valuing new GM technologies: a consumer perspective
While Genetically Modified (GM) crops and foods are in production and on the shelves of supermarkets in many countries, they are still under much criticism and scrutiny around the world. Many studies report that consumers' perceptions towards biotechnology are mixed. The main contribution of this paper is to present a Contingent Valuation (CV) modelling approach that allows for the calculation of ...
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Property claims in genetically and non-genetically modified crops: intellectual property rights vs. brand property rights in postindustrial knowledge societies
Conceptualising the ongoing conflict over genetically modified vs. non-genetically modified crops in the frame of property rights, one can see that economic valorisation dynamics and aspirations are working on both sides, within two differently evolving agri-food paradigms, with biotechnology companies propagating intellectual property rights on seeds and crops within a productivist strategy, and ...
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A GM subsistence crop in Africa: the case of Bt white maize in South Africa
The Republic of South Africa (RSA) is the first developing country to plant genetically modified staple food – Bt white maize. The following paper describes the development and spread of Bt maize in RSA that started in 1998. After that, based on surveys of 33 large commercial Bt maize farmers and 368 smallholders in 2001/2, it shows that Bt maize gives higher yields for both groups and reduces ...
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Introduction: Global actors, markets and rules driving the diffusion of genetically modified (GM) crops in developing countries
The theme of this special issue – genetically modified (GM) crops – goes to the heart of the process of globalisation, technology and development. This introductory essay explains how this new technology is being driven by the actors (multinational corporations), markets (large global markets) and rules (intellectual property) of globalisation. But it is also shaped by the other national and ...
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Ninth Circuit Denies Requests to Stay Use of Enlist Duo Herbicide During Judicial Review
On August 11, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied a motion for a stay pending review filed on December 18, 2014, by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), as well as a subsequent stay motion filed on February 6, 2015, by the Center for Food Safety and other petitioners (Case Nos. 14-73353 and 14-73359, consolidated). Both motions requested that the court stay an ...
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