Biosafety Decisions and Perceived Commercial Risks: The Role of GM-Free Private Standards
Author: Guillaume Gruère, Debdatta Sengupta
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Published:
Total Pages: 40
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Author: Guillaume Gruère, Debdatta Sengupta
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Published:
Total Pages: 40
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Author: Guillaume P. Gruère
Publisher:
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 30
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →"We herein investigate the observed discrepancy between real and perceived commercial risks associated with the use of genetically modified (GM) products in developing countries. We focus particularly on the effects of GM-free private standards set up by food companies in Europe and other countries on biotechnology and biosafety policy decisions in food-exporting developing countries. Based on field visits made to South Africa, Namibia, and Kenya in June 2007, and secondary information from the press and various publications, we find 31 cases of interactions between private GM-free standards and biosafety policy decisions in 21 countries. Although we cannot infer the direct involvement of supermarkets and food companies in biosafety policy processes in developing countries, we find that by setting up GM-free standards, these actors are indirectly influential via their local traders, who face the possibility of exclusion if they do not comply with the standards. Organic producers' and anti-GM organizations also play a role in spreading perceptions of commercial risks that are not always justified. By comparing cases, we differentiate three types of relevant commercial risks: real risks, potential risks, and unproven risks. We then identify two critical, yet misleading, presumptions perpetuated by the various interest groups to spread the fear of potential or unproven risks: the infeasibility of non-GM product segregation and the lack of alternative buyers. We also find that information asymmetries and risk-averse behaviors related to perceived market power can help insert unfounded export concerns into biosafety or biotechnology policy decisions. The results of our analysis are used to suggest a simple framework to separate real commercial risks from others, based on five critical questions designed to aid decision makers when they face pressures to reject GM crop testing, application, consumption or use for fear of alleged export losses. " --from authors' abstract.
Author: John M. Ulimwengu
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 32
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Author: Doris Wiesmann, Lucy Bassett, Todd Benson, and John Hoddinott
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Published:
Total Pages: 104
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Author: Kwadwo Asenso-Okyere, Sindu Workneh, Edward Rhodes, and John Sutherland
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Published:
Total Pages: 69
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Author: Falck-Zepeda, José Benjamin
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Published: 2013-10-02
Total Pages: 266
ISBN-13: 0896297950
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →A variable climate, political instability, and other constraints have limited agricultural development in African countries south of the Sahara. Genetically modified (GM) crops are one tool for enhancing agricultural productivity and food security despite such constraints. Genetically Modified Crops in Africa: Economic and Policy Lessons from Countries South of the Sahara investigates how this tool might be effectively used by evaluating the benefits, costs, and risks for African countries of adopting GM crops. The authors gather together studies on GM crops economic effects and impact on trade, how consumers view such crops, and other issues. They find that GM crops have had, on average, a positive economic effect in the nations where they were used and identify future steps for enhancing GM crop adoptions positive effects. Promising policy initiatives include making biosafety regulations that do not make GM crop development prohibitively expensive, fostering intraregional trade in GM crops, and providing more and better information about GM crops to consumers who might currently be skeptical of them. These and other findings in Genetically Modified Crops in Africa indicate ways biotechnology can contribute to economic development in Africa south of the Sahara.
Author: Glwadys Aymone Gbetibouo
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 52
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Climate change is expected to have serious environmental, economic, and social impacts on South Africa. In particular, rural farmers, whose livelihoods depend on the use of natural resources, are likely to bear the brunt of adverse impacts. The extent to which these impacts are felt depends in large part on the extent of adaptation in response to climate change. This research uses a "bottom-up" approach, which seeks to gain insights from the farmers themselves based on a farm household survey. Farm-level data were collected from 794 households in the Limpopo River Basin of South Africa for the farming season 2004-2005. The study examines how farmer perceptions correspond with climate data recorded at meteorological stations in the Limpopo River Basin and analyzes farmers' adaptation responses to climate change and variability. A Heckman probit model and a multinomial logit (MNL) model are used to examine the determinants of adaptation to climate change and variability. The statistical analysis of the climate data shows that temperature has increased over the years. Rainfall is characterized by large interannual variability, with the previous three years being very dry. Indeed, the analysis shows that farmers' perceptions of climate change are in line with the climatic data records. However, only approximately half of the farmers have adjusted their farming practices to account for the impacts of climate change. Lack of access to credit was cited by respondents as the main factor inhibiting adaptation. The results of the multinomial logit and Heckman probit models highlighted that household size, farming experience, wealth, access to credit, access to water, tenure rights, off-farm activities, and access to extension are the main factors that enhance adaptive capacity. Thus, the government should design policies aimed at improving these factors.
Author: Thaddee Badibanga, Xinshen Diao, Terry Roe, Agapi Somwaru
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Published:
Total Pages: 40
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Author: Ivar Virgin
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2016-08-25
Total Pages: 297
ISBN-13: 1317594428
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The growing global demand for food, feed and bio-based renewable material is changing the conditions for agricultural production worldwide. At the same time, revolutionary achievements in the field of biosciences are contributing to a transition whereby bio-based alternatives for energy and materials are becoming more competitive. Creating Sustainable Bioeconomies explores the prospects for biosciences and how its innovation has the potential to help countries in the North (Europe) and the South (Africa) to move towards resource efficient agriculture and sustainable bioeconomies. Throughout the book, the situations of Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa will be compared and contrasted, and opportunities for mutual learning and collaboration are explored. The chapters have been written by high profile authors and deal with a wide range of issues affecting the development of bioeconomies on both continents. This book compares and contrasts the situations of these two regions as they endeavour to develop knowledge based bioeconomies. This volume is suitable for those who are interested in ecological economics, development economics and environmental economics. It also provides action plans assisting policy-makers in both areas to support the transition to knowledge based and sustainable bioeconomies.
Author: Xinshen Diao
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 28
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The primary goal of this paper is to provide a quantitative assessment of the economywide impact of HPAI in Ghana under different scenarios. A dynamic computable general equilibrium (DCGE) model for Ghana has been developed for this study, and a recent (2005) social accounting matrix with a detailed production structure at both national and sub-national levels is used as the dataset for this analysis.