Biotech Crops, Input Use and Landslides Case Study of Herbicide Tolerant Corn in the Philippine Highlands

Ludovic Bequet

Ecological Economics, 2020, vol. 177, issue C

Abstract: Improved seeds varieties have led to an increase in agricultural production as well as to a change in agricultural practices and input use. While some of these new practices can be more environmentally sustainable, others may lead to a higher level of environmental degradation. In a case study using an original survey method of farming households on the Philippine island of Mindanao covering the past ten years, this paper finds a very robust positive correlation between herbicide tolerant corn cultivation and landslide occurrence. This effect is robust to the inclusion of plot fixed effect, indicating that physical characteristics of the farm do not explain the results. Instead, more aggressive weed control via broad-spectrum herbicide appears as a likely mechanism.

Keywords: Agriculture; Environmental degradation; Landslides; Biotechnology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800920300756
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:177:y:2020:i:c:s0921800920300756

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106773

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Economics is currently edited by C. J. Cleveland

More articles in Ecological Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().