Agricultural Technology and Development Economics

Answer two (2) of the remaining questions:

Please explain and justify your answer. Please don’t interpret this question as calling for general “essay”- or opinion-type responses. Your answers should not be essays, rather, responses should be well-grounded in the scholarly literature and other supportive materials. Again, to emphasize: general essay-type answers will be assigned lower grades than well-argued, detailed, evidence- and research-based responses. You can use whatever format you prefer, but make sure to limit your answers to four double-spaced typed pages. Make sure to cite whatever materials you use to support your answers.

1. This semester we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of what is often called “sustainable agriculture,” “low-external input sustainable agriculture,” or other similar terms. Society places many demands on these systems: meeting consumers’ food demands; contributing to global food security; being more environmentally-friendly than conventional agriculture; generating rural employment; etc. What do you believe are the key requirements of agroecosystems that make them “sustainable”? Do you think that low-external input “sustainable” systems (that typically involve lower yields and exist at smaller scales) can be a broadly viable solution to achieving global food security? Are some systems “sustainable” at the farm or household level, but not so at a more highly aggregated (community, state, national, etc.) level? Please explain your answers.

2. The literature on agricultural technology adoption suggests that several classes of variables are generally important in influencing farm households’ decisions regarding adoption of particular technologies. Based on the evidence, what classes or categories of variables do you believe are of dominant importance in influencing agricultural technology adoption, and why? What important variables or factors, if any, do you believe are often excluded from technology adoption studies that should be included in explaining adoption? Overall, do you believe that the empirical evidence supports the concept of the logistic or “S” curve model of adoption? Why or why not?

3. We know that agricultural biotechnology – specifically, genetically modified crop varieties – generally reduce production costs and/or increase crop yields, and these effects raise aggregate production levels and reduce prices to consumers. As a result, food consumption is higher than it would otherwise be, which in turn enhances nutritional status and reduces undernutrition. These are all factual, documentable results. However, many have criticized agri-biotechnology as a potential threat on various grounds – possible human health effects, possible negative environmental outcomes, the private ownership of patented genetic resources, etc. What do you conclude about the potential of agri-biotechnology in so far as developing nations are concerned? Specifically, are the gains achieved from agri-biotechnology (e.g., genetically modified varieties) greater than the costs? Should individual country policies promote or restrict agri-biotechnology applications? Please explain your answer(s).

4. Current and future climatic changes are likely to have diverse effects across many aspects of global agroecosystems: food production and food security, human health and disease, genetic diversity, economic growth, etc. What do you believe are the primary impacts that climate change will have on the food security status of low-income developing countries? What policy changes should be undertaken, and are likely to have high pay-offs, in enhancing the ability of these countries to deal with adaptation to climate change? (Note 1: You need only discuss adaptation measures, not those pertaining to mitigation; if however, you wish to discuss mitigation measures, you may do so, but be careful that doing so doesn’t make your response overly general and vague. Note 2: this is clearly a wide-ranging question; you will necessarily need to limit your answer to several key points.)