IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v40y2012i1p177-188.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Spread of Illegal Transgenic Cotton Varieties in India: Biosafety Regulation, Monopoly, and Enforcement

Author

Listed:
  • Ramaswami, Bharat
  • Pray, Carl E.
  • Lalitha, N.

Abstract

Plantings of unapproved genetically modified seeds (GM) happen in many developing countries including Brazil, China, and India even though the law does not permit it. Is regulation impossible and what does that imply for safe use of GM seeds? This paper examines these questions in the case of unapproved GM cotton plantings in Gujarat, India. We find that enforcement was possible and that there are no obvious bio-safety implications. The popularity of unapproved seeds (confirmed by contingent valuations), the de-facto intellectual property of legal seeds and the federal polity of India contributed to non-compliance. This could matter for future innovations.

Suggested Citation

  • Ramaswami, Bharat & Pray, Carl E. & Lalitha, N., 2012. "The Spread of Illegal Transgenic Cotton Varieties in India: Biosafety Regulation, Monopoly, and Enforcement," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 177-188.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:40:y:2012:i:1:p:177-188
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2011.04.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X11000775
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2011.04.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arjunan Subramanian & Matin Qaim, 2010. "The Impact of Bt Cotton on Poor Households in Rural India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2), pages 295-311.
    2. Ronald Herring, 2007. "Stealth seeds: Bioproperty, biosafety, biopolitics," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 130-157.
    3. Devparna Roy & Ronald Herring & Charles Geisler, 2007. "Naturalising transgenics: Official seeds, loose seeds and risk in the decision matrix of Gujarati cotton farmers," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 158-176.
    4. Kremer, Michael & Zwane, Alix Peterson, 2005. "Encouraging Private Sector Research for Tropical Agriculture," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 87-105, January.
    5. Matin Qaim & Alain de Janvry, 2003. "Genetically Modified Crops, Corporate Pricing Strategies, and Farmers' Adoption: The Case of Bt Cotton in Argentina," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 85(4), pages 814-828.
    6. Qaim, Matin, 2003. "Bt Cotton in India: Field Trial Results and Economic Projections," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(12), pages 2115-2127, December.
    7. Subramanian, Arjunan & Qaim, Matin, 2009. "Village-wide Effects of Agricultural Biotechnology: The Case of Bt Cotton in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 256-267, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wenjuan Cheng & Alessio D’Amato & Giacomo Pallante, 2020. "Benefit sharing mechanisms for agricultural genetic diversity use and on-farm conservation," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 37(1), pages 337-355, April.
    2. Coomes, Oliver T. & McGuire, Shawn J. & Garine, Eric & Caillon, Sophie & McKey, Doyle & Demeulenaere, Elise & Jarvis, Devra & Aistara, Guntra & Barnaud, Adeline & Clouvel, Pascal & Emperaire, Laure & , 2015. "Farmer seed networks make a limited contribution to agriculture? Four common misconceptions," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 41-50.
    3. Glenn Stone & Andrew Flachs, 2014. "The problem with the farmer’s voice," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(4), pages 649-653, December.
    4. Birner, Regina & Anderson, Jock R., 2015. "Strengthening Agricultural Governance in an Interconnected World," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 211345, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Katharina Najork & Jonathan Friedrich & Markus Keck, 2022. "Bt cotton, pink bollworm, and the political economy of sociobiological obsolescence: insights from Telangana, India," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(3), pages 1007-1026, September.
    2. Qiao, Fangbin, 2015. "Fifteen Years of Bt Cotton in China: The Economic Impact and its Dynamics," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 177-185.
    3. Damien Bazin & Naceur Khraief, 2020. "La technologie Bt est-elle sans risque pour le paysan indien ?," GREDEG Working Papers 2020-48, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    4. Stone, Glenn Davis, 2011. "Field versus Farm in Warangal: Bt Cotton, Higher Yields, and Larger Questions," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 387-398, March.
    5. Madhura Swaminathan & Vikas Rawal, 2011. "Are there Benefits from the Cultivation of Bt Cotton? A Comment Based on Data from a Vidarbha Village," Journal, Review of Agrarian Studies, vol. 1(1), pages 101-124, January-J.
    6. Evita Pangaribowo & Nicolas Gerber & Pascal Tillie, 2013. "Assessing the FNS impacts of technological and institutional innovations and future innovation trends," FOODSECURE Working papers 11, LEI Wageningen UR.
    7. Sarthak Gaurav & Srijit Mishra, 2012. "To Bt or not to Bt? Risk and uncertainty considerations in technology assessment," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2012-001, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    8. Ramasundaram, P. & Suresh, A. & Samuel, Josily & Wankhade, Shwetal, 2014. "Welfare Gains from Application of First Generation Biotechnology in Indian Agriculture: The Case of Bt Cotton," Agricultural Economics Research Review, Agricultural Economics Research Association (India), vol. 27(1).
    9. Sadashivappa, Prakash & Qaim, Matin, 2009. "Effects of Bt Cotton in India During the First Five Years of Adoption," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 49947, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Anderson Jock R. & Birner Regina & Nagarajan Latha & Naseem Anwar & Pray Carl E., 2021. "Private Agricultural R&D: Do the Poor Benefit?," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 19(1), pages 3-14, May.
    11. Shah, Deepak K., 2012. "Bt Cotton in India: A Review of Adoption, Government Interventions and Investment Initiatives," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 67(3), pages 1-11.
    12. Krishna, Vijesh V. & Qaim, Matin, 2007. "Estimating the adoption of Bt eggplant in India: Who Benefits from public-private partnership?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(5-6), pages 523-543.
    13. Suntornpithug, Pasu & Kalaitzandonakes, Nicholas G., 2009. "Understanding the Adoption of Cotton Biotechnologies in the US: Firm Level Evidence," Agricultural Economics Review, Greek Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 10(1), pages 1-17.
    14. N. Lalitha & Carl E. Pray & Bharat Ramaswami, 2008. "The Limits of intellectual property rights: Lessons from the spread of illegal transgenic seeds in India," Discussion Papers 08-06, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi.
    15. Ragasa, Catherine, 2012. "Gender and Institutional Dimensions of Agricultural Technology Adoption: A Review of Literature and Synthesis of 35 Case Studies," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126747, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    16. Birthal, Pratap S., 2013. "Application of Frontier Technologies for Agricultural Development," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 68(1), pages 1-19.
    17. Spielman, David J., 2007. "Pro-poor agricultural biotechnology: Can the international research system deliver the goods?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 189-204, April.
    18. Katharina Najork & Susheel Gadela & Padmarao Nadiminti & Sreeramulu Gosikonda & Raghava Reddy & Ejnavarzala Haribabu & Markus Keck, 2021. "The Return of Pink Bollworm in India’s Bt Cotton Fields: Livelihood Vulnerabilities of Farming Households in Karimnagar District," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 21(1), pages 68-85, January.
    19. Smyth, Stuart J. & Falck-Zepeda, Jose & Ludlow, Karinne, 2016. "The Costs of Regulatory Delays for Genetically Modified Crops," Estey Centre Journal of International Law and Trade Policy, Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade, vol. 17(2), pages 1-23, December.
    20. Rousselière, Samira & Rousselière, Damien & Ramani, Shyama, 2016. "Innovation Led Alliances: Theory and application to the GM Plant Industry," 2016 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Boston, Massachusetts 235711, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:40:y:2012:i:1:p:177-188. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.