 Adoption of modern varieties, farmers' welfare and crop biodiversity: Evidence from UgandaManuela Coromaldi, Giacomo Pallante and Sara Savastano Ecological Economics, 2015, vol. 119, issue C, 346-358 Abstract: This paper assesses the impact of modern varieties adoption on farmers' welfare and crop biodiversity conserved in-situ. Using nationally representative data collected in 2009/2010 in Uganda, an endogenous switching regression model estimates the net economic and environmental effects of switching from local landraces to modern species. Results show that, after controlling for market and agro-ecological factors, the local varieties perform better than modern ones in marginalized and climatic vulnerable areas. Crop biodiversity shows to play a fundamental role in farmers' risk minimizing strategies when the available modern varieties are not adaptable to the local context and not supported by the required level of agro-intensification. Rural development policies should consider the heterogeneity in the adoption returns and support diversity conservation as a national strategic asset for a suitable bioprospecting and a best-fitting agricultural system implementation. Keywords: Crop biodiversity; Rural welfare; Modern varieties; Agricultural intensification; Uganda; Treatment effects (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:119:y:2015:i:c:p:346-358 DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2015.09.004 Access Statistics for this article Ecological Economics is currently edited by C. J. Cleveland More articles in Ecological Economics from Elsevier |
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