Potential Impacts of Crop Biotechnology in Developing Countries. Dieser Artikel ist nicht verfügbar.Potential Impacts of Crop Biotechnology in Developing Countries

Crop biotechnology could boost global food production in a sustainable way. However, the economic repercussions of biotechnology for developing countries are largely unknown and have been the subject of acute controversy over the last few years. This study deals with the topic and provides some preliminary empirical results. An analytical framework for the ex ante evaluation of biotechnology in smallholder agriculture is developed, which is then used within three different case studies in Kenya and Mexico. It is shown that biotechnology holds great potentials for poor agricultural producers and consumers. Yet appropriate institutional adjustments are required to capitalize on these potentials. Implications for national and international biotechnology policies are discussed.

The Author: Matin Qaim is a research fellow at the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany. He studied Agricultural Sciences in Bonn and Kiel and obtained his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Bonn in 2000. Apart from his research on the economics of biotechnology he has worked on food security and rural poverty issues in various low and middle income countries.