IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/teinso/v34y2012i3p256-269.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analysis of open source biotechnology in developing countries: An emerging framework for sustainable agriculture

Author

Listed:
  • Adenle, Ademola A.
  • Sowe, Sulayman K.
  • Parayil, Govindan
  • Aginam, Obijiofor

Abstract

Agricultural biotechnology (e.g. genetically modified (GM) crop technology) is rapidly growing and has immense potential to contribute to sustainable agriculture in developing countries. However, due to the privatization and increased intellectual property rights (IPRs) protection, many people in the developing world find it very difficult to access modern biotechnology research tools (e.g. genetic engineering, micro-propagation, mutation breeding etc.) to improve agricultural productivity. This paper reviews the existing open source literature and draws parallels between the open source paradigm and the effect of IPRs on agricultural biotechnology. Using standard qualitative research methodology and examining specific case studies and initiatives, an innovative Open Source Biotechnology Framework (OSBF) is proposed as part of the solution that could address the challenges with IPR and help bring about sustainable agriculture. This paper further examines the potential impacts, constraints, and adoption of open source for agricultural biotechnology. The paper concludes with a summary of issues arising from adopting the open source paradigm in agricultural biotechnology while proposing a way forward.

Suggested Citation

  • Adenle, Ademola A. & Sowe, Sulayman K. & Parayil, Govindan & Aginam, Obijiofor, 2012. "Analysis of open source biotechnology in developing countries: An emerging framework for sustainable agriculture," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 256-269.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:34:y:2012:i:3:p:256-269
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2012.07.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X12000450
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techsoc.2012.07.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bernard M. Hoekman & Keith E. Maskus & Kamal Saggi, 2023. "Transfer of Technology to Developing Countries: Unilateral and Multilateral Policy Options," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Kamal Saggi (ed.), Technology Transfer, Foreign Direct Investment, and the Protection of Intellectual Property in the Global Economy, chapter 5, pages 127-142, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Shoemaker, Robbin A. & Harwood, Joy L. & Day-Rubenstein, Kelly A. & Dunahay, Terry & Heisey, Paul W. & Hoffman, Linwood A. & Klotz-Ingram, Cassandra & Lin, William W. & Mitchell, Lorraine & McBride, W, 2001. "Economic Issues In Agricultural Biotechnology," Agricultural Information Bulletins 33735, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. Goeschl, Timo & Swanson, Timothy, 2003. "The development impact of genetic use restriction technologies: a forecast based on the hybrid crop experience," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(1), pages 149-165, February.
    4. Ashish Arora & Robert P. Merges, 2004. "Specialized supply firms, property rights and firm boundaries," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 13(3), pages 451-475, June.
    5. Wright, Brian D. & Pardey, Philip G. & Nottenburg, Carol & Koo, Bonwoo, 2007. "Agricultural Innovation: Investments and Incentives," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, in: Robert Evenson & Prabhu Pingali (ed.), Handbook of Agricultural Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 48, pages 2533-2603, Elsevier.
    6. Pénin, Julien & Wack, Jean-Pierre, 2008. "Research tool patents and free-libre biotechnology: A suggested unified framework," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 1909-1921, December.
    7. Sara Boettiger & Brian D. Wright, 2006. "Open Source in Biotechnology: Open Questions Innovations Case Discussion: CAMBIA-BiOS," Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization, MIT Press, vol. 1(4), pages 45-57, October.
    8. Parayil, Govindan, 2003. "Mapping technological trajectories of the Green Revolution and the Gene Revolution from modernization to globalization," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 971-990, June.
    9. Antoine Bureth & Julien Pénin & Sandrine Wolff, 2006. "Entrepreneurship in biotechnology: The case of four start-ups in the Upper-Rhine Biovalley," Working Papers of BETA 2006-21, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    10. Janice Thies & Medha Devare, 2007. "An ecological assessment of transgenic crops," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 97-129.
    11. Pardey, Philip G. & Alston, Julian M. & Chan-Kang, Connie & Magalhaes, Eduardo C. & Vosti, Stephen A., 2004. "Assessing and attributing the benefits from varietal improvement research in Brazil," Research reports 136, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    12. Blakeney, Michael, 2011. "Recent developments in intellectual property and power in the private sector related to food and agriculture," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(Supplemen), pages 109-113, January.
    13. Paul A. David, 2004. "Can 'Open Science' be Protected from the Evolving Scheme of IPR Protections?," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 160(1), pages 9-34, March.
    14. Blakeney, Michael, 2011. "Recent developments in intellectual property and power in the private sector related to food and agriculture," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(S1), pages 109-113.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chen, Wantao & Yu, Xiang & Yang, Wei, 2024. "Is worldwide patent protection converging? A cross-country index of patent protection strength 1990–2020," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    2. Julien Berthoumieu, 2015. "Policy Instruments, Patents and International Technology Diffusion in a North-South Duopoly," Working Papers hal-01155111, HAL.
    3. Adenle, Ademola A. & Wedig, Karin & Azadi, Hossein, 2019. "Sustainable agriculture and food security in Africa: The role of innovative technologies and international organizations," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    4. Cuesta, M.A. & Castillo-Calzadilla, T. & Borges, C.E., 2020. "A critical analysis on hybrid renewable energy modeling tools: An emerging opportunity to include social indicators to optimise systems in small communities," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    5. Esquivel-Sada, Daphne, 2022. "Responsible intellectual property rights? Untangling open-source biotech adherence to intellectual property rights through DIYbio," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    6. Adrian Ely & Adrian Smith & Andy Stirling & Melissa Leach & Ian Scoones, 2013. "Innovation Politics Post-Rio+20: Hybrid Pathways to Sustainability?," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 31(6), pages 1063-1081, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Heimann, Tobias, 2019. "Bioeconomy and SDGs: Does the Bioeconomy Support the Achievement of the SDGs?," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 225998, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    2. Matthew Littleton, 2008. "The TRIPS Agreement and Transfer of Climate-Change-Related Technologies to Developing Countries," Working Papers 71, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    3. Wright, Brian D. & Pardey, Philip G. & Nottenburg, Carol & Koo, Bonwoo, 2007. "Agricultural Innovation: Investments and Incentives," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, in: Robert Evenson & Prabhu Pingali (ed.), Handbook of Agricultural Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 48, pages 2533-2603, Elsevier.
    4. Paul Oldham & Stephen Hall & Oscar Forero, 2013. "Biological Diversity in the Patent System," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(11), pages 1-16, November.
    5. Arora, Ashish & Gambardella, Alfonso, 2010. "The Market for Technology," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 641-678, Elsevier.
    6. Kean Birch & Andrew Cumbers, 2010. "Knowledge, Space, and Economic Governance: The Implications of Knowledge-Based Commodity Chains for Less-Favoured Regions," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(11), pages 2581-2601, November.
    7. Othmani, Abdelhafidh & Ben Yedder, Nadia & Bakari, Sayef, 2023. "The Cointegration Relationship between Patent, Domestic Investment and Economic Growth in United States of America," MPRA Paper 118245, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Huffman, Wallace & Rousu, M. & Shogren, Jason F. & Tegene, Abebayehu, 1009. "Are U.S. Consumers Tolerant of GM Foods?," Staff General Research Papers Archive 12336, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    9. Simon Hartmann & Thomas Lindner & Jakob Müllner & Jonas Puck, 2022. "Beyond the nation-state: Anchoring supranational institutions in international business research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(6), pages 1282-1306, August.
    10. Daniel Leonard & Ngo Van Long, 2015. "Technology transfers and industry closures," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 542-569, June.
    11. Kvakkestad, Valborg, 2009. "Institutions and the R&D of GM-crops," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(10), pages 2688-2695, August.
    12. Wisniewski, Suzanne L.W., 2003. "Effects Of Foreign Intellectual Property Rights On U.S. Bilateral Exports Of Biotechnology Related Agricultural Inputs," 2003 Annual meeting, July 27-30, Montreal, Canada 22222, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    13. Gambardella, Alfonso & Giuri, Paola & Luzzi, Alessandra, 2007. "The market for patents in Europe," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1163-1183, October.
    14. Costantini, Valeria & Crespi, Francesco, 2008. "Environmental regulation and the export dynamics of energy technologies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2-3), pages 447-460, June.
    15. Charikleia Karakosta, 2016. "A Holistic Approach for Addressing the Issue of Effective Technology Transfer in the Frame of Climate Change," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-20, June.
    16. Micheline Goedhuys & Norbert Janz & Pierre Mohnen, 2014. "Knowledge-based productivity in "low-tech" industries: evidence from firms in developing countries," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 23(1), pages 1-23, February.
    17. Arora, Ashish & Athreye, Suma & Huang, Can, 2016. "The paradox of openness revisited: Collaborative innovation and patenting by UK innovators," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(7), pages 1352-1361.
    18. Roberts, Roland K. & English, Burton C. & Gao, Qi & Larson, James A., 2006. "Simultaneous Adoption of Herbicide-Resistance and Conservation-Tillage Cotton Technologies," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 38(3), pages 1-15, December.
    19. Jacques Poot & Anna Strutt, 2010. "International Trade Agreements and International Migration," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(12), pages 1923-1954, December.
    20. Tiffany Shih & Brian Wright, 2011. "Agricultural Innovation," NBER Chapters, in: Accelerating Energy Innovation: Insights from Multiple Sectors, pages 49-85, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:34:y:2012:i:3:p:256-269. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/technology-in-society .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.