Overcoming Constraints to Agricultural Innovation Through the Market: Insights from the Peruvian Andes

This paper discusses possible ways to overcome the situation of physical isolation and the multiple failures that pervade Andean villages. Specifically, it studies a training program developed by a Peruvian NGO, which aims at triggering the development of a market for agricultural services that reach the rural poor. First-hand data is used to identify the scope of the market so-created. It is then looked at determinants of successful intervention, through different indicators. The empirical tests developed show that training farmers as on-the-field consultants is a relevant strategy in the adverse environment under study, provided that the practical implementation is well designed and that some particular constraints are properly taken into account. In particular, training specialists on one relevant topic is much more effective than training generalists. Hence, our results should be viewed as one building block in the debate over the design of successful innovative schemes for agrarian extension in the context of isolation traps and cultural constraints.poverty reduction, agrarian extension, community-based consultants, market failures.

WITTGENSTEIN AND BUDDHISM? ON ALLEGED AFFINITIES WITH ZEN AND MADHYAMAKA

ABSTRACT: Buddhism is popular nowadays and so it becomes in analytic philosophy, as an increasing number of publications on possible intersections between analytic philosophy and Buddhism suggests. The paper focuses on two possible intersections between the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Buddhism. Drawing mainly on an article by Rupert Read, it is first assessed whether there are affinities between Wittgenstein and Zen. After that follows a discussion of alleged affinities between Wittgenstein and Indian Madhyamaka. The upshot of this paper will be that, while alleged affinities between Wittgenstein and at least one important variety of Zen lead to a dead end, constructively engaging Wittgenstein and Indian Madhyamaka is surprisingly fruitful if we make two specific exegetical choices. The first exegetical choice is to focus on Wittgenstein’s Big Typescript (and related documents). The second exegetical choice is to read Nāgārjuna according to Chandrakīrti and Lama Tsong Khapa (and all three as expounded by Jay Garfield). Under the assumption that these choices are good, further investigations to charter this new terrain appear justified

RESHAPING THE CONVENTIONAL WELFARE ECONOMICS FRAMEWORK FOR ESTIMATING THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Some of the crucial assumptions of applied welfare economics do not hold any longer in the case of agricultural biotechnology innovations. We review some modifications to the conventional methodologies measuring the size and distribution of agricultural research benefits, which are critical for the assessment of the economic impact of agricultural biotechnology in the European Union. While some modifications are related to the specific features of modern agricultural biotechnology and technology adoption, others are related to the specific institutional settings of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy and commodity markets.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

BIOTECH IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: FROM A GENE REVOLUTION TO A DOUBLY GREEN REVOLUTION?

International Development, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Overcoming constraints to agricultural innovation through the market: insights from the Peruvian Andes

This paper discusses possible ways to overcome the situation of physical isolation and the multiple failures that pervade Andean villages. Specifically, it studies a training program developed by a Peruvian NGO, which aims at triggering the development of a market for agricultural services that reach the rural poor. First-hand data is used to identify the scope of the market so-created. It is then looked at determinants of successful intervention, through different indicators. The empirical tests developed show that training farmers as on-the-field consultants is a relevant strategy in the adverse environment under study, provided that the practical implementation is well designed and that some particular constraints are properly taken into account. In particular, training specialists on one relevant topic is much more effective than training generalists. Hence, our results should be viewed as one building block in the debate over the design of successful innovative scagrarian extension in the context of isolation traps and cultural constraints.poverty reduction, agrarian extension, community-based consultants, market failures

Regulating coexistence of GM and non-GM crops without jeopardizing economic incentives

The ongoing debate about the coexistence of genetically modified (GM) and non-GM crops in the European Union (EU) mainly focuses on preventive measures needed to keep the adventitious presence of GM material in non-GM products below established tolerance thresholds, as well as on issues covering questions of liability and the duty to redress the incurred economic harm once adventitious mixing in non-GM products has occurred. By contrast, the interplay between the economic incentives and costs of coexistence has attracted little attention. The current overemphasis on the technical aspects and cost of coexistence over its economic incentives might lead EU policy-makers to adopt too stringent and rigid regulations on coexistence. Therefore, we argue for flexible coexistence regulations that explicitly take into account the economic incentives for coexistence. Our arguments provide a timely and important framework for EU policy-makers, who are currently struggling to implement coherent coexistence regulations in all member states.status: publishe

Biodiversity versus Transgenic Sugar Beet: The One Euro Question

The decision of whether to release transgenic crops in the EU is one subject to flexibility, uncertainty, and irreversibility. We analyse the case of herbicide tolerant sugar beet and reassess whether the 1998 de facto moratorium of the EU on transgenic crops for sugar beet was correct from a cost-benefit perspective using a real option approach. We show that the decision was correct, if households value possible annual irreversible costs of herbicide tolerant sugar beet with about 1 or more on average. On the other hand, the total net private reversible benefits forgone if the de facto moratorium is not lifted are in the order of 169 Mio per year.Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

BIODIVERSITY VERSUS TRANSGENIC SUGAR BEET: THE ONE EURO QUESTION

The decision of whether to release transgenic crops in the EU is one subject to flexibility, uncertainty, and irreversibility. We analyse the case of herbicide tolerant sugar beet and reassess whether the 1998 de facto moratorium of the EU on transgenic crops for sugar beet was correct from a cost-benefit perspective using a real option approach. We show that the decision was correct, if households value possible annual irreversible costs of herbicide tolerant sugar beet with about 1 E or more on average. On the other hand, the total net private reversible benefits forgone if the de facto moratorium is not lifted are in the order of 169 Mio E per year.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

IMPACT OF AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION'S SUGAR INDUSTRY

We develop a welfare framework, which explicitly recognizes that research protected by intellectual property rights generates monopoly profits. The result is a simulation model, shaped to the European sugar sector, and enabling to assess the size and distribution of the benefits of transgenic sugar beet adoption in the European Union (EU) and the Rest of the World (ROW). Our model results suggest that the ROW captures the largest share of the benefits (53 % of total welfare increase). The EU sugar industry absorbs the next largest share of the benefits (30 %), with the smallest share (17 %) accruing to seed suppliers and gene developers. Since EU intervention prices are exogenously fixed each year, EU consumers do not take part in the distribution of the gains from the innovation. However, consumers outside the EU necessarily gain due to the depressing effect of the technology on world sugar prices. The latter is costly for the cane growers in the ROW, while beet producers gain. Our results reveal an apparent contradiction. When modern (bio)technologies are introduced in commodity markets subject to obsolete trade policies, the natural flow of domestic benefits from the input industry, via farmers, to consumers is hampered and biased towards the producing sector (input industry, farmers, and processors), leaving domestic consumers unaffected. Remarkably, given the current Common Market Organization for sugar, consumers outside the EU gain while EU citizens continue to subsidize EU sugar production trough high sugar prices, despite the innovation.Industrial Organization, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,