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2000-2001 IFPRI Annual Report Essays
Biotechnology: Two Perspectives
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| Research at IFPRI and elsewhere supports an optimistic scenario for the 21st century—if agricultural productivity continues to grow as we at IFPRI project, the world will be able to feed itself. However, the assumption about continued productivity growth is crucial for this scenario to hold true. And as important as the amount of food grown is the question of who grows it. Smallholder farmers must participate in this productivity growth, or they will remain in poverty.
The last agricultural revolution based on plant breeding is largely complete. True, some developing countries still stand to gain from further dissemination of “Green Revolution” technologies. And in some regions, such as Africa, there are still significant gains to be had from better production practices, including agroecological approaches, mechanization, and the increased use of agricultural chemicals. But existing technologies will not be enough to meet the increasing demand for food or the needs of smallholder farmers for more productivity and less risk. The biological Green Revolution, which relied on selective plant breeding, is now being superseded by a biochemical revolution, in which hardier, higher-yielding, and more nutritious crops are being developed through direct genetic modification (GM). These new GM technologies hold great promise, in combination with existing technologies, but they also bring with them a host of new questions and problems, including issues of food safety, environmental spillovers, intellectual property rights, and potential abuses of market power. IFPRI has increased its research on biotechnological issues in order to bring new knowledge into the global debate over this new food production method. Poor and hungry people in developing countries deserve, at the very least, that decisions affecting their lives be based on sound analysis, not solely on opinions and perceptions, and that their voices be heard in the decision making process. The essays that follow deal with two of these contentious issues: international trade arrangements and intellectual property rights. |
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