The Importance of Studying Impacts of Biotech Crops in Developing Agriculture

Developing countries grew close to 50% (49.9%) of global biotech crops in 2011 and may exceed industrialized countries in total hectarage this year (International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications [ISAAA], 2012). In order of total hectarage, the four largest biotech crop growers among developing countries are Brazil, Argentina, India, and China. Each is also known as a global economic leader. Brazil has been characterized as a biotech “engine of growth,” where the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) has recently approved its own publicly developed, virus-resistant bean (ISAAA, 2012). In contrast to these early-adopting nations, in Sub-Saharan Africa (outside of South Africa) only Burkina Faso has introduced a biotech crop (cotton). As of 2011, outside of India and China, only the Philippines and Myanmar have commercialized a biotech crop, and the Philippines is the only Asian country to have introduced a biotech food crop (maize). Measured in terms of total hectarage, herbicide-tolerant (HT) soybean—rather than insect-resistant cotton—is the most extensively cultivated biotech crop in developing countries. Outside of the United States, many farmers who grow HT soybeans are in Latin America (Argentina and Brazil, especially), where they grow it on mechanized farms that are relatively large (well over 50 ha). By contrast, Bt cotton farmers in India, South Africa, and China typically hand-cultivate and harvest the crop—often with family labor—and on farms of under 5 ha. In this issue, we refer to farmers who operate on this smaller scale, with limited resources, as “smallholders in developing agriculture.” For additional insights, we also offer an example from a study of relatively smaller-scale, mechanized HT soybean growers in Bolivia. Assessing the impacts of any new technology on farms is not a trivial exercise. Calculating the costs and benefits of new seed technology and related inputs has occupied the minds and journals of agricultural economists working with international research institutions since the Asian Green Revolutions in wheat and rice that began during the late 1960s (Byerlee & Traxler, 1995; Hazell, 2010; Pinstrup-Andersen & Hazell, 1985; Ruttan, 1977). Studies by Zvi Griliches (1957) on the diffusion of maize hybrids in the United States, and later by John Gerhart (1975) on maize hybrids in Kenya, were also pivotal in the early literature. Our experience has been, however, that biotech crops have some features that exacerbate the challenges of impact measurement. Heightened political sensitivities around GM crops create additional problems related to drawing probabilistic sampling, as demonstrated by studies in Honduras (Falck-Zepeda, Sanders, Rogelio Trabanino, & Batallas-Huacon, in this issue) and Bolivia (Smale, Zambrano, Paz-Ybarnegaray, & Melinda Smale Michigan State University Measuring the economic impacts of GM crops in developing agriculture poses particular challenges. In order to ensure that information generated is relevant and usable, continued improvement in methods is needed as diffusion of these crops steadily expands. In the first decade of published studies, given the characteristics of early adoption, researchers were not often able to effectively control for various types of potential bias created by sampling, measurement, or estimation methods. Several published studies present exemplary approaches. The objective of pilot studies assembled here, all based on farmer surveys, was to attempt to apply recommended approaches within a constrained budget of $20,000-40,000 in countries and crops that had received little research attention. Case studies present findings, illustrate difficulties, and suggest means of overcoming them. Overall, we call for establishing research consortia to monitor the impacts of GM crops based on comprehensive national sampling frames in which ad hoc surveys can be embedded.