The Costs of Achieving the Millennium Development Goals through Adopting Organic Agriculture

Anil Markandya, Sununtar Setboonsarng, Qiao Yu Hui, Rachanee Songkranok and Adam Stefan
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Sununtar Setboonsarng: Asian Development Bank Institute
Qiao Yu Hui: Asian Development Bank Institute
Rachanee Songkranok: Asian Development Bank Institute
Adam Stefan: Asian Development Bank Institute

No 193, ADBI Working Papers from Asian Development Bank Institute

Abstract: This paper provides estimates of the costs of organic agriculture (OA) programs, and sets them in the context of the costs of attaining the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It analyzes the costs of OA programs in four case studies: Wanzai, PRC; Wuyuan, PRC; Kandy, Sri Lanka; and Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand. The results show considerable variation across the case studies, suggesting that there is no clear structure to the costs of adopting OA. Costs do depend on the efficiency with which the OA adoption programs are run. The lowest cost programs were more than ten times less expensive than the highest cost ones. A further analysis of the gains resulting from OA adoption reveals that the costs per person taken out of poverty was much lower than the World Bank's estimates, based on income growth in general or based on the detailed costs of meeting some of the more quantifiable MDGs (e.g., education, health, and environment).

Keywords: organic agriculture un mdg; millennium development goals organic; organic agriculture asia mdg (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q01 Q18 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 25 pages
Date: 2010-02-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-env and nep-sea
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Related works:
Working Paper: The Costs of Achieving the Millennium Development Goals through Adopting Organic Agriculture (2011)
Working Paper: The Costs of Achieving the Millennium Development Goals through Adopting Organic Agriculture (2010)
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