Private Research and Public Goods: Implications of biotechnology for biodiversity

Terri Raney and Prabhu Pingali

No 04-07, Working Papers from Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - ESA)

Abstract: The pattern of crop genetic diversity has changed over the past two centuries with the modernization of agriculture, accelerating with the advent of the green revolution. Since the green revolution, the locus of agricultural research has shifted from the public to the private sector. The growing importance of the private sector in agricultural R&D is changing the types of crop technologies that are developed and the ways they are delivered to farmers. The spread of transgenic crops will influence crop genetic diversity, but their implications for the availability of plant genetic resources and the resilience of agricultural ecosystems are not entirely clear. Transgenic crops may increase or decrease crop genetic diversity, depending on how they are regulated and deployed. This paper explores a range of policy options to increase the likelihood that private sector R&D, particularly in the form of transgenic crops, enhances rather than erodes crop genetic diversity.

Keywords: Biochemical engineering; Biotechnology; Genetic engineering; Novel foods; Technology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 O33 Q16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: pages
Date: 2004
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Forthcoming in Biodiversity, Biotechnology and Development, J. Cooper, D. Zilberman and L. Lipper (ed..), forthcoming 2004, Natural Resource Management and Policy Series, Kluwer Publishers.

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Related works:
Chapter: Private Research and Public Goods: Implications of Biotechnology for Biodiversity (2005)
Working Paper: Private Research and Public Goods: Implications of Biotechnology for Biodiversity (2004)
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