IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/egc/wpaper/878.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

GMOs: Prospects for Increased Crop Productivity in Developing Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Robert E. Evenson

    (Economic Growth Center, Yale University)

Abstract

Genetically Modified Crops (GMO foods) have been widely available to farmers since 1996. The Gene Revolution, based on recombinant DNA (rDNA) genetic engineering techniques, is seen by proponents as both supplanting Green Revolution varieties, based on conventional plant breeding techniques, and potentially enabling "disadvantaged" production environments, unreached by Green Revolution varieties to achieve productivity improvements. This paper argues that the private firms supplying GM crop products have generally had little interest in selling products in disadvantaged production environments. The paper also argues that present rDNA techniques allow only static gains from specific "trait" improvements. But these GM products can be installed on Green Revolution varieties where continued dynamic varietal improvement is possible. As a consequence, the Gene Revolution complements the Green Revolution, and because trait incorporation expands area planted to Green Revolution varieties, there is potential for productivity improvement in disadvantaged environments.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert E. Evenson, 2003. "GMOs: Prospects for Increased Crop Productivity in Developing Countries," Working Papers 878, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    • Handle: RePEc:egc:wpaper:878
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.yale.edu/growth_pdf/cdp878.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stigler, George J., 2011. "Economics of Information," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 5, pages 35-49.
    2. Evenson, Robert E & Gollin, Douglas, 1997. "Genetic Resources, International Organizations, and Improvement in Rice Varieties," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(3), pages 471-500, April.
    3. Zvi Griliches, 1958. "Research Costs and Social Returns: Hybrid Corn and Related Innovations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 66, pages 419-419.
    4. Samuel S. Kortum, 1997. "Research, Patenting, and Technological Change," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(6), pages 1389-1420, November.
    5. Evenson, Robert E & Kislev, Yoav, 1976. "A Stochastic Model of Applied Research," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(2), pages 265-281, April.
    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. Das, Gouranga Gopal, 2005. "Information age to genetic revolution: Embodied technology transfer and assimilation — A tale of two technologies," MPRA Paper 37250, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2006.
    2. Takeshima, Hiroyuki, 2014. "Importance of rice research and development in rice seed policies: Insights from Nigeria:," IFPRI discussion papers 1343, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    3. Zylbersztajn, Decio & Machado, Claudio Pinheiro Jr, 2006. "Contracting Under Weak," 44th Congress, July 23-27, 2006, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil 148300, Sociedade Brasileira de Economia, Administracao e Sociologia Rural (SOBER).

    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. Caracciolo, Francesco & Gotor, Elisabetta & Holloway, Garth J. & Watts, Jamie, 2008. "The Origin, Development And Structure Of Demand For Plant Genetic Resources. The Impact Of The In Trust Agreements To The CGIAR Collections Availability," 82nd Annual Conference, March 31 - April 2, 2008, Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, UK 36773, Agricultural Economics Society.
    2. Branstetter, Lee & Chatterjee, Chirantan & Higgins, Matthew J., 2022. "Generic competition and the incentives for early-stage pharmaceutical innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(10).
    3. Lee Branstetter & Kwon Hyeog Ug, 2004. "The Restructuring Of Japanese Research And Development: The Increasing Impact Of Science On Japanese R&D," Discussion papers 04021, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    4. Hein, Lars & Gatzweiler, Franz, 2006. "The economic value of coffee (Coffea arabica) genetic resources," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 176-185, November.
    5. Joseph Zeira, 2011. "Innovations, patent races and endogenous growth," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 135-156, June.
    6. Hall, Bronwyn H. & Mairesse, Jacques & Mohnen, Pierre, 2010. "Measuring the Returns to R&D," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1033-1082, Elsevier.
    7. Griffith, Garry R., 1978. "An Ex Ante Evaluation of the National Pig Carcase Measurement and Information Service," Review of Marketing and Agricultural Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 46(03), pages 1-22, December.
    8. Bosch, Mariano & Lederman, Daniel & Maloney, William F., 2005. "Patenting and research and development : a global view," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3739, The World Bank.
    9. Benoît Godin, 2010. "The Knowledge Economy: Fritz Machlup’s Construction of a Synthetic Concept," Chapters, in: Riccardo Viale & Henry Etzkowitz (ed.), The Capitalization of Knowledge, chapter 10, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Pellegrina, Heitor S., 2022. "Trade, productivity, and the spatial organization of agriculture: Evidence from Brazil," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    11. Jonathan S. Feinstein, 2017. "The Creative Development of Fields: Learning, Creativity, Paths, Implications," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 8(1), pages 23-62, March.
    12. Lee Branstetter & Reiko Aoki, 2005. "Is Academic Science Raising Innovative Productivity? Theory and Evidence from Firm-Level Data," Hi-Stat Discussion Paper Series d05-86, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    13. Runge, C. Ford, 2006. "Agricultural Economics: A Brief Intellectual History," Staff Papers 13649, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    14. Gray, Richard S. & Malla, Stavroula & Tran, Kien C., 2005. "Pecuniary, Non-Pecuniary, and Downstream Research Spillovers: The Case of Canola," 2005 International Congress, August 23-27, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark 24776, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    15. Malla, Stavroula & Gray, Richard S., 2002. "Crop Research Incentives in a Privatized Industry: A Stochastic Approach," 2002 International Congress, August 28-31, 2002, Zaragoza, Spain 24936, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    16. Frisvold, George B. & Sullivan, John & Raneses, Anton, 2003. "Genetic improvements in major US crops: the size and distribution of benefits," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 109-119, March.
    17. Gray, Richard & Malla, Stavroula, 2007. "Research Spillovers What They Are and Why They Matter for Policy," CAIRN Policy Briefs 273075, Canadian Agricultural Innovation and Regulation Network (CAIRN).
    18. Takeshima, Hiroyuki & Maji, Alhassan, 2016. "Varietal development and the effectiveness of seed sector policies: The case of rice in Nigeria:," NSSP working papers 34, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    19. Frosch, Katharina & Tivig, Thusnelda, 2007. "Age, human capital and the geography of innovation," Thuenen-Series of Applied Economic Theory 71, University of Rostock, Institute of Economics.
    20. Malla, Stavroula & Gray, Richard S., 2001. "An Analytical And Empirical Analysis Of The Private Biotech R&D Incentives," 2001 Annual meeting, August 5-8, Chicago, IL 20544, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Genetically Modified Foods; Genetic Engineering;

    JEL classification:

    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • O4 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity
    • Q1 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:egc:wpaper:878. 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: Benjamin King (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/egyalus.html .

    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.