The Political Economy of Agricultural Biotechnology Policies

Why might it be that low income countries would apply regulatory systems for agricultural biotechnology modeled after European standards, even though it means their poor farmers and consumers lose any potential gains in agricultural productivity and social welfare? Ten years of commercial use in the United States, Canada, Argentina, and Brazil have demonstrated that traits such as insect-resistant Bt and herbicide tolerance can increase yields in corn, soybeans, and other crops and can be consumed safely, yet many African regulators continue to ban these traits (Paarlberg, 2008). Analyses of the adoption of Bt within farming systems characterized by limited means of pest control, such as smallscale cotton growers in India, demonstrate significant yield gains (Qaim & Zilberman, 2003). Yet, Indian regulators appeared willing to approve the technology only after an entire state of farmers had effectively bootlegged the technology into their fields (Herring, 2003). As a general-purpose “enabling” technology, biotechnology can be used to introduce a wide variety of traits appropriate for farming systems around the world. Yet, by lumping all results of this general-purpose technology under a common set of regulatory requirements, policies designed for already commercialized traits (i.e., pest control) are heavily affecting the costs and incentives of developing a wider variety of other “secondgeneration” traits (Graff, Zilberman, & Bennett, 2005). The resulting orphan traits have included some that are obviously important—such as drought tolerance—and others that are more subtle but potentially potent—such as feed characteristics to increase the efficiency of digestion in animals. Any such improvement in the use efficiency of a crop output—say, by 3%—translates into a comparable reduction in the acreage needed to cultivate that crop, in the water and other inputs used to grow that crop, and in the waste that results from processing or using that crop. In the case of feed efficiency, this would translate into a reduction in the amount of nitrogenous and phosphoric pollution from animal manure. Other orphaned traits, such as increased shelf-life of fresh fruits and vegetables, could benefit producers and consumers—in both developing and developed economies. Such a trait could partially compensate for lack of transportation infrastructure and refrigeration in developing economies, reducing waste and increasing net available food supplies to consumers, while shelf-life traits basically allow for reduced costs and expanded reach of mature supply chains in developed economies. Gregory D. Graff Colorado State University