Bio-innovation and Poverty Alleviation: Case Studies from Asia - Hardcover

Vivid and factual...an important read not only for social scientists, but most importantly for policy makers and science and technology experts who need to look at societal benefit at large, keeping in mind the social and cultural factors before any innovation.

The book offers important insights into various forms of bio-innovation efforts and their effects on poverty alleviation.... A highly readable book. Each case is immensely informative...the language and flow are cogent and convincing.

The editors have done an excellent job of putting together papers on various types of bio-innovations from across Asia...the book is a must read for those involved in research into and practice of pro-poor interventions in rural areas of the developing world.

The present volume contrib­utes significantly to the existing literature and should be an important point of reference for policymakers and researchers alike.

The proposed volume attempts to understand how forms of bio-innovation might be linked to the problem of poverty and its reduction through an inquiry into a number of empirical cases of present-day bio-innovations in Asia. Conditions and circumstances in countries like Cambodia, China, India, Korea, Nepal, Philippines, and Thailand are quite different and provide a mosaic of varied experiences in bio-innovation that include shrimp farming, GMO cotton, bio gas, organic farming, and vaccines.

Offering important insights into various forms of bio-innovation efforts and their effects on poverty alleviation, this volume is divided into three major themes that organize the main sections of the book—benefits for the poor: actual, direct, and prospective benefits for the poor; absence of positive impacts and institutional constraints; pro-poor drivers and embedding in anti-poverty alleviation.

The central questions addressed here are:
· Ways and circumstances in which certain forms of bio-innovations affect the poor and enable poverty alleviation. 
· Critical factors and conditions for improving the positive impact of bio-innovations on poverty alleviation.
· Poverty alleviation goals should be the point of departure in rationalizing, identifying and designing appropriate and relevant bio-innovation programs.