Wheat Rusts and the Costs of Genetic Diversity in the Punjab of Pakistan

Derek Byerlee and Edward Souza

American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 1997, vol. 79, issue 3, 726-737

Abstract: The theory of impure public goods is used to demonstrate why farmers may not grow wheat cultivars with the socially desirable level of rust resistance. First, they may grow cultivars that are high yielding though susceptible to rust. Second, many farmers may grow cultivars with a similar genetic basis of resistance. Expected rust losses can be reduced by (a) more diversified genetic background in released wheat cultivars; (b) greater spatial diversity in planted cultivars; or (c) use of a temporally changing list of cultivars known to be rust resistant. Yield trade-offs associated with these policies illustrate potential costs of increasing genetic diversity. Copyright 1997, Oxford University Press.

Date: 1997
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