IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jdevst/v43y2007i1p31-62.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Plant breeding and poverty: Can transgenic seeds replicate the 'Green Revolution' as a source of gains for the poor?

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Lipton

Abstract

Improved farm technology helps all main groups of the poor - small farmers, farmworkers, other low-wage labour - when it raises labour value-productivity, but raises land and/or water value-productivity faster; and cuts staples prices, but raises smallholders' total factor productivity faster. From 1965 the Green Revolution walked these two tightropes largely by luck. Though targeting bigger piles of rice and wheat, it cut poverty through consumption; nutrition; smallholder income; employment; risk reduction; and ecological sustainability. Yet large areas were left out, and from 1985 progress slowed. In the new environment for research and agriculture, how can transgenics revive and spread poverty reduction? What has been the evidence so far? What determines whether new varieties have traits conducive to poverty reduction: who owns the research, or what crop science is?

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Lipton, 2007. "Plant breeding and poverty: Can transgenic seeds replicate the 'Green Revolution' as a source of gains for the poor?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 31-62.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:43:y:2007:i:1:p:31-62
    DOI: 10.1080/00220380601055510
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220380601055510
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00220380601055510?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. Fan, Shenngen & Hazell, Peter & Haque, T., 2000. "Targeting public investments by agro-ecological zone to achieve growth and poverty alleviation goals in rural India," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 411-428, August.
    2. Delgado, Christopher L. & Rosegrant, Mark W. & Steinfeld, Henning & Ehui, Simeon K. & Courbois, Claude, 1999. "Livestock to 2020: the next food revolution," 2020 vision briefs 61, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    3. Fan, Shenggen & Zhang, Linxiu & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2000. "Growth and poverty in rural China: the role of public investments," EPTD discussion papers 66, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Hossain, Mahabub, 1988. "Nature and impact of the Green Revolution in Bangladesh:," Research reports 67, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    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. Mercedes Campi & Alessandro Nuvolari, 2021. "Intellectual Property Rights and Agricultural Development: Evidence from a Worldwide Index of IPRs in Agriculture (1961-2018)," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(4), pages 650-668, April.
    2. Romy Santpoort, 2020. "The Drivers of Maize Area Expansion in Sub-Saharan Africa. How Policies to Boost Maize Production Overlook the Interests of Smallholder Farmers," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-13, February.
    3. Jonathan Harwood, 2018. "Another Green Revolution? On the Perils of ‘Extracting Lessons’ from History," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 61(1), pages 43-53, December.
    4. Lincoln Addison & Matthew Schnurr, 2016. "Growing burdens? Disease-resistant genetically modified bananas and the potential gendered implications for labor in Uganda," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 33(4), pages 967-978, December.
    5. Richard Bownas, 2016. "Lost in Transnationalism? GMOs in India and the Eclipse of Equitable Development Discourse," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 11(1), pages 67-87, April.
    6. Fischer, Klara, 2016. "Why new crop technology is not scale-neutral—A critique of the expectations for a crop-based African Green Revolution," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(6), pages 1185-1194.
    7. Serra, Teresa & Poli, Elena, 2015. "Shadow prices of social capital in rural India, a nonparametric approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 240(3), pages 892-903.
    8. Emelie Rohne Till, 2021. "A green revolution in sub‐Saharan Africa? The transformation of Ethiopia's agricultural sector," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(2), pages 277-315, March.

    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. Michael Lipton, "undated". "Learning From Others: Increasing Agricultural Productivity for Human Development in Sub-Saharan Africa," UNDP Africa Policy Notes 2012-007, United Nations Development Programme, Regional Bureau for Africa.
    2. Lipton, Michael, 2010. "From Policy Aims and Small-farm Characteristics to Farm Science Needs," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 1399-1412, October.
    3. Jung, Suhyun & Cho, Seong-Hoon & Roberts, Roland K., 2009. "Public Expenditure and Poverty Reduction in the Southern United States," 2009 Annual Meeting, January 31-February 3, 2009, Atlanta, Georgia 47145, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    4. Hazell, P. B. R. & Haddad, Lawrence James, 2001. "Agricultural research and poverty reduction:," 2020 vision discussion papers 34, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    5. Fan, Shenggen & Rao, Neetha, 2003. "Public spending in developing countries: trends, determination, and impact," EPTD discussion papers 99, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    6. Lipton, Michael, 2005. "The family farm in a globalizing world: the role of crop science in alleviating poverty," 2020 vision discussion papers 40, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    7. Renkow, Mitch, 2010. "Impacts of IFPRI's "priorities for pro-poor public investment" global research program:," Impact assessments 31, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    8. Tristan Le Cotty & Bruno Dorin, 2012. "A global foresight on food crop needs for livestock," Post-Print hal-00800715, HAL.
    9. Gómez, Miguel I. & Ricketts, Katie D., 2013. "Food value chain transformations in developing countries: Selected hypotheses on nutritional implications," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 139-150.
    10. Olson, Kent & Gauto, Victor & Erenstein, Olaf & Teufel, Nils & Swain, Braja & Tui, Sabine Homann-Kee & Duncan, Alan, 2021. "Estimating Farmers’ Internal Value of Crop Residues in Smallholder Crop-Livestock Systems: A South Asia Case Study," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315188, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Keil, Alwin & Saint-Macary, Camille & Zeller, Manfred, 2013. "Intensive Commercial Agriculture in Fragile Uplands of Vietnam: How to Harness its Poverty Reduction Potential while Ensuring Environmental Sustainability?," Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture, Humboldt-Universitaat zu Berlin, vol. 52(1), pages 1-25, February.
    12. Yu, Wusheng & Hertel, Thomas W. & Preckel, Paul V. & Eales, James S., 2004. "Projecting world food demand using alternative demand systems," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 99-129, January.
    13. Dasgupta, Susmita & Meisner, Craig & Mamingi, Nlandu, 2005. "Pesticide traders'perception of health risks : evidence from Bangladesh," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3777, The World Bank.
    14. Mohammed H. Alemu & Søren Bøye Olsen & Suzanne E. Vedel & John Kinyuru & Kennedy O. Pambo, 2016. "Integrating sensory evaluations in incentivized discrete choice experiments to assess consumer demand for cricket flour buns in Kenya," IFRO Working Paper 2016/02, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    15. Shikuku, Kelvin M. & Valdivia, Roberto O. & Paul, Birthe K. & Mwongera, Caroline & Winowiecki, Leigh & Läderach, Peter & Herrero, Mario & Silvestri, Silvia, 2017. "Prioritizing climate-smart livestock technologies in rural Tanzania: A minimum data approach," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 204-216.
    16. Kanbur, Ravi & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2001. "Fifty Years Of Regional Inequality In China: A Journey Through Revolution, Reform And Openness," Working Papers 7236, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    17. Leakey, Roger & Kranjac-Berisavljevic, Gordana & Caron, Patrick & Craufurd, Peter & Martin, Adrienne M. & McDonald, Andy & Abedini, Walter & Afiff, Suraya & Bakurin, Ndey & Bass, Steve & Hilbeck, Ange, 2009. "Impacts of AKST on development and sustainability goals," Book Chapters,, International Water Management Institute.
    18. Jaleta, Moti & Kassie, Menale & Shiferaw, Bekele A., 2012. "Tradeoffs in Crop Residue Utilization in Mixed Crop-Livestock Systems and Implications for Conservation Agriculture and Sustainable Land Management," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126282, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. Ushma Upadhyay, 2000. "India's New Economic Policy of 1991 and its Impact on Women's Poverty and AIDS," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(3), pages 105-122.
    20. Poulton, Colin & Davies, Rob & Matshe, Innocent & Urey, Ian, 2002. "A Review Of Zimbabwe'S Agricultural Economic Policies: 1980 - 2000," ADU Working Papers 10922, Imperial College at Wye, Department of Agricultural Sciences.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:taf:jdevst:v:43:y:2007:i:1:p:31-62. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FJDS20 .

    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.