Conferencia Internacional de Bioeconomía Aplicada (ICABR)

Plant material is built from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and water, nitrogen, and micronutrients drawn from soils. New experiments exposing C3 plants (e.g. wheat, rice, potatoes, barley) to concentrations of CO2 expected later this century show declines of about 10% in protein, 5-10% in iron and zinc, and up to 30% on average of the nitrogen-intensive B vitamins (Taub et al 2008; Loladze 2002, 2014; Myers et al. 2014; Zhu et al. 2018), contributing to micronutrient deficiencies. As concentrations of CO2 rise, yields may increase, richer in starch and oil but likely lower in protein and minerals, contributing to the growing double burden of malnutrition (Nugent, 2020). Options for responding include consumer adaptations via changes in their food choices or dietary supplements, or investments can be made through fortification or biofortification via conventional plant breeding, genetic modification, or agronomic practices including fertilizer use (Dwyer et al., 2018; Saltzman et al., 2017; Stokstad, 2019). In low-income settings, limited markets, substitute foods, and processing capacity hinder dietary diversity, nutritional supplements and fortification. Among the biofortification options, although a greater emphasis is on transgenic research, the success rate and acceptability of breeding is higher (Garg, 2018), perhaps due to the perceived risk around environmental and health effects of GMOs (including CRISPR), and the position of trading partners like the EU. This paper explores the economics of prioritizing options for responding to this new plant/carbon nexus, according to the disease burden of caloric and micronutrient deficiencies, and available cost-effective estimates.

Universities and tertiary institutions play an important role as leaders in teaching and learning, in education, research and technology. In teaching activities, universities and tertiary institutions provide the professional training for high-level jobs, as well as the education necessary for the development of the personality. Universities and tertiary institutions can help in providing with the new knowledge and skills needed to meet the challenges of sustainable development in a community, in raising public awareness and providing preconditions for informed decision-making, responsible behavior and consumer choice. Universities and tertiary institutions are considered to have been regarded as key institutions in processes of social change and development. The most important role they have been assigned is the production of highly skilled manpower and research output to meet perceived targets. As of now there is no university or tertiary institution in Uganda that provide certificate, diploma, bachelors and post graduate degree programs in bioscience and bioeconomy. With Uganda’s economy continuing to largely depend on biological resources in the region and Africa, there is need to support universities programmes that focus on biosciences and bioeconomy. We have therefore developed university and other tertiary institutions programs at certificate, diploma, bachelors, and post graduate level to provide skills in bioscience and bioeconomy for creation of employment, improved livelihoods and rural economy. The aim is to produce a mix of bioscientists and bioeconomist that can continue to provide services in fostering the growth of bio-based enterprises in Uganda and across the African continent.

Performance drawbacks occur when the output of grapevine producers is below their potential, and is often explained by heterogenous technologies, capital endowment, water infrastructure and management. In a context of changing climate patterns, climate contingencies and the spread of pests reaches a level of unpredictability that farmers' adaptation pace is often argued. Employing stochastic methods to unique primary datasets from small and medium grapevine farmers in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile this paper unveils adaptation efforts from water scarce vineyards, measuring their technological gaps and estimates the economic damages of 56 communities in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. Inline with the spread of pests in the southern cone, these identified technological gaps are jointly analyzed with the recorded data of the spread of pests diseases to estimate a damage function of climate variability. Regional assessment of productivity in grapevine production systems provided additional insights of technology selection by producers. Moreover, preliminary results showed that wine valleys from Chile and Mendoza province have relatively better picked out their technology and, probably, face fewer constraints to deal with water scarcity through technology adoption in irrigation systems.

In a global context of increasing demand for agricultural resources combined with climate change and scarcity of areas for agricultural expansion, the process of sustainable intensification is placed as an important issue in public policy. The ABC Plan, an example of this type of public policy, allocates resources through the ABC Program for the recovery of degraded pastures. The identification of degraded pastures in Brazil occurs through indicators of low productivity of livestock, mainly based on low animal stocking (UA.ha-1). This premise is not always true, as there are areas with low support capacity, due to physical limitations, but that are not necessarily degraded. The objective of this study was to determine yield efficiency and yield gap of pasture for the São Paulo State in Brazil, using CROPGRO Perennial Forage to identify areas with the greatest potential for livestock intensification and to evaluate if the ABC Program is being applied in regions with greater potential for productivity increase. The current average efficiency of pasture production in this state was 46.4% and an average yield gap of 5.8 Mg.ha-1.year-1. The results suggest that part of the ABC Program resources are well adjusted, however, another part not so much, indicating that their adjustment through a yield gap analysis provided by mechanistic modeling can create a better scenario to the performance of the Program. This study shows that the use of mechanistic models can be very useful for evaluating and directing public policies aimed at rural sustainable development in the context of bioeconomy.

This paper reviews recent literature in the digital era to reconsider a 2007 review of the organizational and political attributes that govern the performance of agricultural extension systems. It emphasizes the efficiency gains that can come from digitally-enabled delivery systems with incentive structures tuned to contemporary digitalized capabilities. Globally, provision of advisory services will increasingly be through private providers but in many countries it will still be largely publicly funded. (The paper is presently 22 pages, including 3 of references)

New plant breeding technologies (NPBTs) can be used to edit the genes of crops in order to produce greater yields using less land, fight pests and withstand environmental stresses. Some South American countries are opting to establish regulatory frameworks that would allow gene-edited products to have an easier road from lab to market. In Central America, Honduras and Guatemala are the only countries that have put forth regulations on NPBTs The Honduran policy considers that NPBT’s can develop organisms that in most cases are equivalent or indistinguishable from those that can be developed using traditional improvement techniques. Consequently, these regulations establish a procedure to distinguish between a genetically engineered product and products resulting from the use of NPBT’s that could be considered as conventional. This paper will provide an analysis of the relevant biosafety regulations of Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Costa Rica in order to assess how they could legally adopt a system like that in place in Honduras. The paper will examine the countries’ principles, key concepts and procedures within the context of each country’s biosafety framework, as well as the government agencies involved and their scope to determine if they can follow the Honduran model for regulating NPBTs.

The bioeconomy is considered as a new paradigm for sustainable development. Therefore, several countries have strategies or policies to develop or expand their bioeconomies, based on different visions. A bioeconomy vision is a shared understanding of the concept of bioeconomy by a group of specific actors. Clarity about such vision is important for public policy planning, since it determines what the objective is, and therefore affects the actions and measures to be taken to achieve such objective. Colombia, one of the most mega-diverse countries in the world, is currently in the process of developing its national bioeconomy strategy, as means to achieve green growth while leveraging its high biodiversity. In this paper, we explore which bioeconomy vision currently prevails in Colombia, at both national and sectoral levels, as suggested by a workshop for experts. We discuss different visions and their relationship with environmental and social sustainability elements. The analysis results in the identification of different co-existing visions, though with the bio-resources vision as the prevailing one. In addition, it identifies four potential challenges areas to social and environmental sustainability. These include the need to promote conservation of biodiversity, monitor sustainability results of bioeconomy, consider competing objectives in terms of employment generation, and to ensure that structural issues concerning land ownership and access to resources are sorted out. Understanding these elements is a key to ensure that Colombia's national strategy provides a roadmap towards a sustainable and inclusive bioeconomy.

Using matched geo-referenced household panel data and long historical rainfall data from northern Togo, this paper investigates livelihood diversification and households’ welfare outcomes in the face of increasing weather variability. Our results show that long-term rainfall variation is decelerating diversification, while more short-term deviations accelerate crop diversification. Furthermore, diversification is more likely to occur in wealthier households. In terms of welfare implications, our results indicate that livestock diversification in particular has the potential to improve a household’s welfare. Local institutions seem to be supportive of crop and livestock diversification and contribute to decreases in poverty. However, the current arrangement of agricultural institutions in Togo is not effective in mitigating negative effects of climate change. The paper concludes that there is a necessity to strengthen credit, agricultural and market institutions for stimulating diversification in the agricultural portfolio. In terms of policy, the paper recommends targeted policies at stimulating livestock diversification at rural sub-Saharan Africa to strengthen livelihoods and reduce vulnerability to adverse rainfall variability.

HB4 is a GMO technology developed by Bioceres SA that confers tolerance to water stress to soybeans, wheat, and other crops. It is based on the introduction of HaHb4, a group of genes from sunflower discovered by the team of Dra Rachel Chan (CONICET, UNL Argentina). HB4 also provides resistance to ammonium glufosinate, a trait that permits to control glyphosate resistant weeds. The paper presents an analysis of willingness to pay (WTP) for the HB4 soybeans (not released to the market yet) using a choice experiment methodology. We also present a simulation model parameterized with data from field experiments where HB4 soybean yields were compared with the yields of its isoline. Results from the choice experiment suggest that willingness to pay was in average 29 USD/ha for tolerance to water stress and 26 USD/ha for resistance to AG. The WTP for farmers in areas with Yield Gaps larger than 20% was 30 USD/ha, 20% higher than for farmers in areas with Yield gaps lower than 20%. Regarding the distribution of benefits, these figures represent a 60/40 value share between farmer and developer for tolerance to water stress and 50/50 for the control of resistant weeds The simulation model shows that HB4 efficacy ranged from 16% at yields lower than 1,500 kg/ha to nearly zero for yields larger than 3,500 kg/ha. In areas of Yield Gaps larger than 20%, HB4 efficacy is higher than 7% and it is a promising technology to reduce the unexploited grain production capacity.

Behavioural patterns of agricultural producers related to the adoption of innovations have been thoroughly studied. While understanding and predicting farmers’ adoption decisions is important for developing better agricultural policy mechanisms and enhancing their effectiveness, the current body of research falls short in providing policy-makers with clear and synthesized knowledge regarding farmers’ behaviour, knowledge which can help support the development of such policies. The objective of this paper is to draw on recent literature and current practices to provide better insights for policy-makers to aid the development of improved policy responses and outcomes. First a summary of relevant theories and methods used to understand and predict farmers’ behaviours will be developed, together with data requirements, other resources needed to run these analyses, main insights gained from the approach and potential areas of application. Second, this study will identify previously used policy mechanisms developed to target agricultural producers’ behaviour and evaluate their effectiveness. Last, the paper identifies areas of future research needed to better support agricultural policy-makers in developing effective policy responses.

Antibiotic use is becoming increasingly contentious in livestock production globally due to the increase in antibiotic resistant bacteria. Simultaneously but not necessarily causally related is a consumer demand for antibiotic free meat (as evidence by the number of restaurants and grocery stores providing antibiotic free products). This demand may arise from a concern about antibiotic residues in meat more than a concern about the use of antibiotics encouraging the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Regulatory policy around the use of antibiotics is becoming more restrictive in most countries (in Canada antibiotics may no longer be labeled as growth promoting and the use of all antibiotics requires veterinary oversight, December 2018). Using two national online surveys (2017 and 2019) we investigate public preferences for a ban on the use of sub-therapeutic use of antibiotics in livestock through a referendum type question at different taxation levels (taxes to cover the enforcement of the antibiotic ban). Explanatory variables include socio-demographic characteristics, animal attitudes (Herzog, 2015), antibiotic concerns and meat eating behaviour. Following Whitehead & Hoban (1999) we use a test retest approach to establish whether or not public preferences for a ban on antibiotic use in livestock production (exception for therapeutic use) are changing across time, particularly given the regulatory change in Canada in 2018. Our results help inform the need for/ acceptance of further regulatory restrictions on the use of antibiotics, by the public. Alignment of regulatory policies with public preferences may be key to maintaining consumption of livestock products.

Livestock health is increasingly complex. Evolving animal diseases (eg. African Swine fever) and the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria which is affecting the routine use of antibiotics for growth, prevention and treatment of infections are challenging. New regulations around antibiotic use are making livestock production more complex. Some genomic tools that could be used to reduce the incidence of disease (and/or need for antibiotics) remain controversial due to lack of acceptance by some groups. What is less well understood is whether the public wants to see continued investment in research that could either increase the use of genomic tools in breeding for higher disease resilience or produce antibiotic alternatives to maintain livestock production. Whether or not people want to continue to eat livestock products, even with the development of plant based, cellular and insect based alternatives and concerns about animal welfare, and about the impacts of disease (antibiotic use) on human health, is a key factor in preferences for livestock research. Using two national online surveys (2012 and 2019 in Canada) we examine the public demand for more investment in livestock research (specifically in the development of selective breeding and alternatives to antibiotics). Willingness to pay taxes to support research is estimated based on socio-demographic variables, meat purchasing behaviour, animal attitudes, animal welfare concerns, trust in the food system and government as a regulator and other attitudinal variables. Animal attitudes are a significant consistent predictor of willingness to be taxed to support more research.

The bioeconomy and the circular economy have common objectives and their intersection is what is called "circular bioeconomy": improved resource efficiency and eco-efficiency, low carbon footprint, waste valorization. CB includes: bio-based products; sharing, reusing, remanufacturing, recycling; cascading use; resource-efficient value chains; nutrient cycling. In Argentina there is an interesting applied case study: an integrated system of small-scale bioenergy production in the field, which allows the addition of activities that transform waste into usable inputs. The main objective of this study was to analyze the economic convenience of advancing value-added processes within the framework of the circular bioeconomy. The study was based on a stabilized circular model implemented by the Tigonbu Group in San Luis province that consists of the following business units: 1) corn production (with biofertilizers); 2) feedlot (main inputs: corn grain and wet distiller grain with solubles -WDGS-; products: meat for export and effluent for biogas); 3) mini-bioethanol distillery (main inputs: corn, electric and thermal energy; products: WDGS for feedlot and bioethanol to be sold to oil companies); 4. biogas plant (inputs: effluent and chopped corn; products: electric and thermal energy for mini-distillery, electric energy for market and biofertilizers for agricultural production). Based on the information from the Tigonbu Group and the reference information of each activity, different profitability indicators were estimated: net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), recovery period (RP) and return on invested capital (ROIC). The results show favourable signs in relation to the integration of the activities in a circular bio-economy scheme.

El algodón se cultiva principalmente debido a su fibra, pero su semilla es un importante subproducto del procesamiento y es la segunda fuente principal de aceite vegetal en todo el mundo. El objetivo fue determinar la cantidad de aceite en semillas de algodón de variedades transgénicas, sembradas en diferentes ambientes y arreglos espaciales. El trabajo incluyó la extracción de aceite por Soxhlet de semillas de algodón de dos variedades (NuOpal RR y Delta Pine 1238) sembradas en dos fechas (temprana y tardía) y en cuatro arreglos espaciales (96; 76; 48 y 38 cm entre surcos) durante dos años estudios (2016-17 y 2017-18) en la EEA INTA Sáenz Peña-Chaco, Argentina. El contenido de aceite varió entre 16-20%, resultando el análisis estadístico de los datos no significativo para fechas de siembras, variedades y arreglos espaciales. Las siembras tempranas produjeron un 3% más de aceite que las siembras tardías, en NuOpal RR éste aumento fue del 7% versus las siembras tardías. Contrariamente DP 1238 aumentó un 2% en siembras tardías.La distribución espacial de los surcos incremento la cantidad en 8% en surcos a 38 cm, 7% a 48 cm y 5% a 76 cm. La fecha de siembra no tuvo influencia en la cantidad de aceite extraído, pero sí hubo una respuesta diferencial de cada variedad en cada fecha de siembra. Además se observó una relación inversa entre el arreglo espacial del cultivo y la cantidad de aceite obtenido, siendo mayor el contenido de aceite en surcos más cercanos y viceversa

Adopting adaptive agricultural production strategies can promote positive impacts by expanding forest conservation and making agricultural production more resilient to climate change. This work propose to analyze the relationship between the vegetation preservation stage and agricultural production. Integrated and intensive production systems were analyzed; The proxy adopted for the plant preservation stage was the NVDI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) obtained by the remote sensing method, which indicates that the more active, the vegetation absorbs better the sunlight in the chlorophyll working process in plant tissues, making high the digital values of the satellite image for the NDVI; This index highlights the potential of techniques that non-invasively detect physiological and biochemical changes in plant ecosystems that are important tools in a bio-based economy. The hypothesis of the work is based on the fact that the larger the areas destined to the integrated system, the greater the level of plant preservation. The database for the productive systems was the Agricultural Census in the periods 2006 and 2017, with clipping for municipalities in the Savanna biome. A regression with panel data was estimated and made it possible to analyze the evolution of NDVI according to the productive systems of interest over time. In this interaction, the results showed that in municipalities with a higher proportion of area allocated to integrated systems, the values for NDVI were higher compared to municipalities with a higher proportion of area allocated to intensive systems, confirming the hypothesis presented by the study.

In its quest to protect children from the harmful effects of cadmium, the EU has set restrictive maximum levels (ML) for cadmium in chocolates containing less than 30% total solids of cocoa on a dry matter basis (ML of Cd 0.10 mg/kg). This is discussed in the Codex Alimentarius Commission. There, a much higher ML of Cd 0.3 mg/kg is proposed, which is in line with the low health risk that was concluded in the JECFA (Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives) risk assessment. The proposed ML allows flexibility for cocoa supply especially in geographical regions with volcanic soils that can lead to greater uptake of naturally-occurring cadmium such as in Latin America. The EU risk assessment reached other conclusions, favoring African regions that are more able to fulfill stricter ML. The paper discusses how scientifically sound the cadmium risk assessments by the different parties are. The EU directive on cadmium in cocoa products is scrutinized and especially the invoking of the precautionary principle. The impacts of this barrier to trade, especially for Latin American countries, is explored (i.e. diversion of research money from projects strengthening cocoa productivity to low cadmium uptake varieties). To remedy the situation, the EU (but also USAID) is giving for example aid money under the DeSIRA development programme to affected countries. The validity of the EU's approach to sanitary and phytosanitary measures is discussed from a legal point of view and in the context of the sustainable development goals.

In a highly competitive economic context, Brazilian agribusiness is considered the sector that enters Brazil in global dynamics. The search for renewable fuels has increased with each passing year, but the logistical infrastructure for transporting biofuels has not kept pace with the growth in production, which ends up causing difficulties in the transport that is currently carried out marjorely by road. This work is focused on analyzing, through an econometric model, the determinants of ethanol road freight in Brazil. The following variables will be analyzed: harvest period, diesel oil price, route distance, road quality and international quotation. Based on the model results is expected to propose measures to reduce the ethanol transportation costs and how this is reflected in the final price of the product.

The last few years have seen increased investment in biotech taking into account a breakthrough both in biotech and IT. These investments expect growing demand for precision tech with reduced GHG emission and capacity to sequester carbon. They also address on one hand challenge of food security and on the other increased demand for food as income in developing countries is rising and more people join the middle class. In this presentation, we will present a case study of a major tech company THEIA which aims to provide global microlevel info on agro-ecological conditions and weather as well as provide algorithms and methods to improve productivity. We also argue that with this technology, the ag input sector will go through a new information revolution where new equipment that relies on robotics and is able to address heterogeneity at the microlevel will emerge. These new ITs will be competing on their ability to discover resources underground and monitor pollution and other activity to improve economic decision making

Argentina has recently accepted international Climate Change commitments (e.g., Paris Agreement) and since the beginning of 2018 has implemented a carbon tax, particularly on fossil fuels. However, for a developing economy where socio-economic problems are relatively more worrying and urgent for the population, this environmental goal should be in line with others related to reducing unemployment and socio-economic disparities. Thus, the aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of implementing a carbon tax in Argentina not only for reducing GHG emissions but also looking for other dividends. The empirical hypothesis we test is that recycling the carbon tax revenue, through lower distorting taxes on labor or greater subsidies on key sectors, leads improving both, environmental and economic indicators (i.e., GDP, employment, GHG emissions and sectors’ outputs) of the country. In order to achieve this objective, we carry out with an Input-Output Model to Argentina (2015) and we run three scenarios of recycling carbon tax revenue. Our main results show that when the revenue is not recycled at all, national emissions fall at the expense of a huge decline in economic growth. But when labor taxes are reduced in the same amount of the carbon tax revenue the number of people employed per unit of product increases (employment double dividend). No Double Dividend is evidenced when recycling the carbon tax revenue as direct transfers to households.

Innovation in agricultural biotechnology has the potential to increase productivity and quality of the industry, ultimately raising incomes for farmers across the world. Most of the new technological developments in the field are by firms headquartered in high income economies. However, the need to adapt innovation in the industry to local agro-ecological conditions implies the necessity to access to specific regional agricultural knowledge. This in turn, generates a global innovation network whereby innovators – firms and/or non-firm organizations such as researchers in public institutions -- intentionally collaborate with one another to produce knowledge that results in innovation (Barnard and Chaminade, 2017). This paper aims to analyze how the plant biotechnology innovation ecosystems give rise to new technological advances in the field. Drawing on information contained in patent documents and scientific publications, it identifies who is innovating and where they are geographically located. It demonstrates how these innovative centers connect to one another based on network analysis of co-authors identified in scientific publications, as well as co-inventors and co-applicants listed in patent documents. Evidence compiled from analyzing the global innovation network of the plant biotechnology will provide evidence on: (i) how innovation in the industry spreads, (ii) how regions in the periphery, usually comprised of emerging or developing economies, may build their innovative capacities in plant biotechnology, and (iii) what policies may be useful in facilitating innovation in the field.

In both developing and developed countries, women farmers have long been considered the “invisible workers.” A large portion of their work - child rearing, unpaid labor on family farms, and household responsibilities - is not counted in traditional surveys or census collections, nor is it included in a country’s gross national product. In addition to these non-monetized contributions, cultural norms prohibit women from accessing critical resources such as credit, land, or opportunities for formal training. Eliminating the barriers to women’s participation in agriculture both increases gender equity in farming, and has demonstrated benefits to the economic and production outcomes of agriculture in developing countries. However, there is currently not enough information about women’s disempowerment to create effective policy interventions. Achieving gender equality in agriculture requires local knowledge to help women actively overcome regionally specific barriers to their participation in the sector. Developed in collaboration with USAID’s Feed the Future Initiative, the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) provides a detailed approach to gathering meaningful data on varying domains of women’s engagement with agriculture. This oral presentation will describe applications of the WEAI since its development in 2012, with an emphasis on trends in countries and datasets that commonly integrate this tool. This talk will inform further research directions toward more widespread and culturally relevant interventions for gender equality, economic growth, and improved household health and food security.

The demand for poultry products is expected to grow exponentially in the present decade. However, the poultry value-chain in Kenya is fraught with challenges stemming from high cost of feed which accounts for at least 60% of the production costs. This has created uncertainties for smallholder poultry farmers as their profit margins have drastically reduced. To protect their livelihoods and meet the national demand, icipe has introduced the black soldier fly insect to replace the conventional protein sources. In retrospect, new and improved products often fail in the market when the subjective preferences of the target beneficiaries fail to be considered. Hence, this study assessed the perceived benefits and the preferred institutional reforms of the insect-based chicken feed value-chain by poultry farmers in Kiambu County, Kenya. Results from analysis of qualitative data from focused group discussions and key informant interviews revealed that farmers expect: affordable and nutritious feed, reduced chick mortality, efficient feed intake, rapid weight gain, improved egg-laying and profit incentives which will be fundamental in filling the food and nutritional gap. This was attributed to the fact that insects are easily available in the ecosystem and have been previously harvested for their high protein content. For the insect-based feed industry to repeal the setbacks of the current value chain: decentralization of quality regulation institutions to county level, penalization, public and private partnerships to increase sensitization and use of ICT to verify quality are some of the transformations that would ensure the success of this novel industry.

Despite agriculture’s key role in Sub-Saharan Africa, agricultural productivity has remained relatively low compared with that of most other countries producing similar crops globally. Recent innovations in the sector such as development of genetically modified (GM) crop varieties with traits targeted to specific contextual challenges could increase significantly Africa’s agricultural performance. Several GM technologies are advancing in the R&D and regulatory pipelines, a few have been commercialized. In this paper we discuss results from an ex ante economic assessment using economic surplus to examine additional economic benefits from technology adoption. We summarize results from 8 case studies composed of five GM technologies in five Sub-Saharan African countries. The technology and countries chosen for the analysis include Ethiopia (Stacked drought tolerant & Insect resistant maize), Ghana (Pod borer resistant cowpea, nitrogen use efficient rice), Nigeria (Pod borer resistant cowpea), Tanzania (Stacked drought tolerant/Insect resistant maize), and Uganda (BXW resistant bananas, CBSD resistant cassava).Analysis results show positive net economic impacts from the potential GM technology adoption in all countries to varying degrees. Results are robust to various sensitivity tests and methodological cross checks that consider a range of values for production markets, performance, and adoption assumptions. Adoption of a GM crop is predicated on compliance with regulatory and other governance requirements, proper product dissemination and stewardship, and the technology’s effectiveness in addressing producer productivity issues. Special attention needs to be paid to reducing regulatory and governance delays to minimize inefficiencies and potential coordination issues that may arise over time.

The considerations for future consequences (CFC) is an important personality trait affecting environmental- and health-related behaviors. Consumers who ignore CFC tend to be less patient and have a lower willingness to pay (WTP) for products with immediate cost and long-term health benefits. On the other hand, consumers who are more concerned about future consequences tend to have higher WTP for products with environmental benefits in the long term.

The objective of this study is to examine the effects of CFC on consumer acceptance and willingness to pay for the health attribute (reduced acrylamide) and the environmental attributes (reduced pesticide application and reduced waste) of GM potatoes in Canada. An online survey was conducted and stated choice experiments were used to collect data on consumer acceptance of GM potatoes with various attributes. We also asked a set of questions regarding consumer considerations for future consequences. We use the random parameters logit model to analyze the effects of CFC and other factors on the economic value consumers place on the GM potatoes. Our preliminary results are in line with our expectations that consumers who assign higher importance to future consequences are willing to pay a price premium for the environmental attributes but not the health attribute. Results from this study contribute to our understanding of the effects of CFC on consumer acceptance of GM products with different attributes.

Ghana is the world’s second largest producer of cocoa beans. The country experienced its highest level of cocoa production of over 1,000,000 tonnes in the 2010/2011 crop year. Since then, despite several government interventions into the sub-sector, the country’s annual cocoa output has declined to about 850,000 tonnes. Among the reasons attributed to the shortfall is cocoa smuggling to neighbouring countries. Smuggling is difficult to measure, as a result, cocoa smuggling has largely been ignored in research. There are thus paucity of empirical figures to confirm the extent of the phenomena. This is a case study aimed at assessing the extent of cocoa smuggling from Ghana to Togo. It is a descriptive survey which focused on farmer confirmation of sales outlets used, volumes of cocoa sold, and factors influencing the choice of sales outlet. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics using stata version 11. The study found that cross border sale of cocoa in Togo is common among the farmers in the district, with 42% of the respondents selling part of their recent produce in Togo, and the volume of produce directly sold in Togo constituting about 50% of outputs. Price and mode of payment are the main factors that influenced their decision sell in Togo. It is recommended that the government of Ghana, through COCOBOD, improves pricing and payment regimes while increasing measures for detection and severity of sanctions, to reduce the illegal export of cocoa.

The digital revolution is now sweeping through agriculture. Project Breakthrough describes digital agriculture as the “use of new and advanced technologies, integrated into one system, to enable farmers and other stakeholders within the agriculture value chain to improve food production.” Digital agriculture, or ‘Agriculture 4.0’, has three main aspects: first, exploitation of the Internet of Things, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI); second, digital technology supported precision farming; and third, the ability to use big data to segment markets, create spot trading, and disrupt global supply chains. Our paper assesses the known and forecasted impacts on technology developers, producers, agricultural input providers, food processors, the wholesale and retail space and consumers. Three themes are explored which are particularly relevant to creating new governance and policy responses to digital agriculture: 1) Governance challenges arise regarding the origin, access and use, ownership, and sharing in the value from commercialization. Producers need to know the governing conditions under which they contribute and access data, and to what extent they can participate in data-enriched agricultural systems. 2) Agriculture’s data-intensive future requires specialized research infrastructure to create and uptake new opportunities. The system is in flux, as the right mix of high-impact, applied, interdisciplinary and data-based R&D is being encouraged by funders. 3) Global accumulation of scientific evidence on precision plant breeding and digital agriculture can underpin international standards in trade deals, but put state-based regulation in a precarious position. A new equilibrium balancing scientific and social interests, and food security sovereignty looks likely.

Recent advances in biotechnology have enabled increased efficiency in seed multiplication particularly for root and tuber crops. Technologies such as aeroponics and semi-autotrophic hydroponics has facilitated rapid multiplication of the high quality traits to meet farmers demand for improved varieties that guarantees increased productivity in harsh climatic conditions. Commercial cassava seed system envisaged coordinated value chain of research-to-seed entrepreneurs, and seed entrepreneurs-to-farmers (commercial and subsistence farmers). This informed the launch of the project Building a Commercially Viable and Sustainable Cassava Seed system (BASICS) to facilitate varietal purity, traceability, certified improved commercial cassava seed system in Nigeria. This study analyzed the level of commercialization of improved cassava seed, the determinants of commercialization and share of net income due to cassava seed commercialization. The study adopted a purposive sampling technique to select the participating Village Seed Entrepreneurs in the four participating states in the south- south and south-eastern Nigeria including the foundation seed producers. Findings from the study reveals a mean commercialization index of 0.41, seed commercialization contributed 50.91% of total farm profit while the parameter estimates of the determinants of cassava seed commercialization reveals that instrumental variables such as age, choice clone, farm size, farm business training, yield per hectare and network were statistically significant at different levels of probabilities (1%,5% and 10%) and had direct relationship with commercialization except age. It recommended that agricultural extension and rural advisory services should support the promotion of elite varieties while the government should enable the business environment for the seed system to thrive.

This research examines the collaboration flows among countries, focusing particularly on the development of technological frontier areas of bioenergy. The results analysed at different time periods show that bioenergy frontiers have been undergoing development and are interdependent on several areas of knowledge. We results shows that the bioenergy networks reflect the global energy transition towards cleaner energy production. In the European Union(EU), biogas has had the highest growth in the bioenergy sector in the last decade, with a share of 7.8% in 2015. The representative collaboration of Germany in the articles is in line with the country’s expertise in the biogas theme, being the world leader in energy production from this source, with a share of more than 50% of the total biogas production in the EU. On the other hand, China’s remarkable scientific output is consistent with its worldwide leadership in the renewable energy revolution, searching for energy sources alternative to fossil ones to meet the growing energy demand of the country. Over the past decades, there has been a considerable increase in patents and collaborative networks for the production of microalgae biofuels in the USA in order to complement biodiesel and bioethanol from agriculture. This transition is currently in course and we can confirm that knowledge flows from the emerging networks and their relationships are outlining the frontier technologies in the bioenergy paradigm. As long as the search for renewable energy sources continues worldwide, the bioenergy paradigm will play a central role in the sustainable development towards bioeconomy.

Genomic selection offers enormous potential for improving a particular species as it allows scientists to select varieties at a much faster and more accurate rate than traditional selection. The main impediment is the large amount of data that is required before genomic selection leads to tangible benefits. Furthermore, existing market structures may not provide sufficient incentives for firms to share their data. We investigate the feasibility of a genomic information sharing system both empirically and theoretically. Using a dynamic oligopolistic Cournot model of the beef market, we model the formation of genetic information sharing pools. The main objective is to identify the economic conditions under which these sharing pools can be viable options. In addition to the theoretical model, we present results from a survey of Alberta beef producers in which we assess the current nature of information sharing, identify the factors that affect the willingness to share information, and estimate the willingness-to-accept to collect genomic information with the intent to share.

With a focus on ethanol, this paper seeks to analyze whether the effects of logistics costs and commercial tariffs on Brazilian ethanol impact on trade flows. Through the development of a partial equilibrium model formulated as a Mixed Complementarity Problem - PCM, we tried to propose scenarios where different policies are adopted. Brazil is the second largest producer of ethanol in the world, thus, identifying where and how the logistics and marketing costs are formed is of fundamental relevance for Brazilian agribusiness. Add to this the increase in the global search for renewable energy that raises the number and frequency of ethanol sales, which leads to higher transaction costs. Based on the scenarios generated for this thesis, the sensitivity analysis showed that the reduction of 20% in the value of import tariffs and in the transportation cost the Brazilian market is able to increase its sales volume by 5.3%, which would generate a revenue increase of approximately U $ 334 million in annual revenues. The model was also more sensitive when comparing the cost of the tariffs in relation to the cost of transportation. Based on the scenarios evaluated, we conclude that lowering tariffs has a greater impact on commercialization compared to lowering transportation costs. On the other, rising combined costs (logistics and tariffs) significantly reduce business transactions. With this we can set up a new design for the ethanol chain where lower taxation of the product coupled with low transport costs will revert to new business opportunities.

Plants are built from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and water, nitrogen, and micronutrients drawn from soils. New experiments exposing C3 plants (e.g. wheat, rice, potatoes, barley) to concentrations of CO2 expected later this century show declines of about 10% in protein, 5-10% in iron and zinc, and up to 30% on average of the nitrogen-intensive B vitamins (Ebi, et. al, 2020; Taub et al 2008; Loladze 2002, 2014; Myers et al. 2014; Zhu et al. 2018), contributing to micronutrient deficiencies. As concentrations of CO2 rise, yields may increase but will likely be less nutrient-dense, potentially contributing to the growing double burden of malnutrition (Nugent, 2020). Options for responding include emerging multi-sectoral food system strategies, but also consumers can adapt via their food choices or dietary supplements, or investments can be made through fortification or biofortification via conventional plant breeding, bioengineering, or agronomic practices including fertilizer use (Dwyer et al., 2018; Saltzman et al., 2017; Stokstad, 2019). In low-income settings, limited markets, substitute foods, and processing capacity hinder dietary diversity, supplements and fortification. Among the biofortification options, although more emphasis is on transgenic research, the success rate and acceptability of breeding is higher (Garg, 2018), perhaps due to the perceived risk around environmental and health effects of GMOs (including CRISPR), and the position of trading partners like the EU. This paper explores the economics of prioritizing options for responding to this new plant/carbon nexus in LMICs, according to the disease burden of caloric and micronutrient deficiencies and available cost-effective estimates.

Relationships between on-farm crop diversity (number and abundance of different crops grown), market access, and food security have long been a focus of development scholars and practitioners seeking to support improved nutrition and climate change resilience in Sub Saharan Africa. But the drivers of on-farm crop diversity are complex: farmers’ choices of crops to plant, commercialize, and consume are influenced by a mix of agro-ecological conditions (e.g., soils, climate), economic constraints (e.g., market access, policy), and socio-cultural institutions (e.g., gender norms, food preferences). We integrate public data from three large household surveys (USAID Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS-ISA), and IFPRI Ethiopian Rural Household Survey (ERHS)) with public geospatial data on area planted to different crops (crop area estimates derived from SPAM 2010 v1.1 Global Data and Monfreda et al. (2008) using MODIS and GLC2000 remotely sensed products) to examine patterns in crop diversity, market access, and livelihood outcomes in rural Ethiopia. We show how crop diversity metrics (e.g., Simpsons Diversity Index) are generally positively associated with household market activity, incomes and nutrition, though associations vary across selected diversity metrics and livelihood outcomes. Findings (and associated data analysis training materials) more generally illustrate how large-scale household surveys paired with publicly accessible geospatial data allow for more robust analyses of relationships between crop choices, market access, and food security at the farm-household level, and also pave the way for novel analyses of links between crop diversity, diets, and climate resilience across community and regional scales.

The growth of bioethanol in Brazil during the 2000s and 2010s was both in production and in the area of sugarcane. The proposal is to bring further comprehension of the second phenomenon. The analysis is focused on the Triangulo of Minas Gerais, the South of Goiás and the Southwest of Mato Grosso do Sul. The harvested area with sugarcane in these regions passed from 260,061 hectares, in 2000, to 1,902,794 hectares in 2018 (IBGE, 2020). This growth was not simple. It required scientific knowledge and qualified labor adapted to the particularities of the regions. The hypothesis is that the interaction between universities and producers is central to improve the productivity of sugarcane and make this crop profitable in regions far from the ports and main consumers. The aim of this paper is to discuss the role of the universities located in the areas of sugarcane growth in the spatial moving of this crop. It was investigated the Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU), the Federal University of Jataí (UFJ), and the Federal University of Grande Dourados (UFGD). The paper uses a qualitative methodology based on interviews with researchers engaged in sugarcane studies in these institutions. From the theoretical perspective, the paper is based on the geography of knowledge literature, using the spatial division of knowledge as a central concept. The results show the specific academic fields that theses universities contribute, the relationship with local companies, and the role in labor qualification.

Public acceptance of the use of genetic tools in pig breeding is not well understood. Acceptance can be driven by the importance of the trait that is the outcome of the breeding decision, by the type of genetic tool used in the selective breeding and by a combination of trait and tool (trade-offs accepted). In terms of traits to be selectively bred for , consumers are very responsive to the idea that livestock can be bred for disease resilience, this is a positive trait. When it comes to the method of selective breeding conventional breeding is viewed very positively, with the use of genomics in selective breeding and gene editing following in terms of preferred methods, genetic modification is viewed as the least preferred out of the four options. How the tool influences the return on investment to breeding for disease resilience is examined with a North American model of the hog/pork sector simulated under the varying preferences for genetic approach. Overestimating public support for an attribute developed through an unpopular technology has a big impact on the distribution and size of returns to investment in developing more disease resilient pigs.

The bioeconomy has emerged as an alternative production system based on the use of biomaterials and biodiversity. This model exploits knowledge and productivity under conservation principles to create value and promote sustainable economic and social development. Even though there is no consensus on the participation of bioeconomy on national economies, methodologies allowing to proxy the importance of the bioeconomy over a wide set of economic sectors has been developed. These include agriculture, food production, forestry, biofuels, textiles, among others. Understanding the scope of the bioeconomy in the transformation of modern production systems requires to monitor the magnitude of the economic activities and their impact in social, economic and environmental terms. Colombia is considered one of the richest countries in biodiversity that has an important regional heterogeneity, so that a national strategy requires precise information about bioeconomy. Therefore, one of the crucial inputs to advise policy makers, society and private sector lies on building a monitor system considering the whole ecosystem and factors as productive capacity, wealth and management of natural resources and environmental system. European countries have made much progress in this line through the project Biomonitor, which aims to provide a landscape of bioeconomy in society as well as identify opportunities to foster sustainable growth at local level. We consider the case of Antioquia, an important region in Colombia, economically speaking, to implement a novel and scalable set of indicators that reveals the aggregate activity, sectoral size and economic and environmental impact associated to bioeconomy activities.

This presentation summarizes main findings and recommendations of Safeguarding the Bioeconomy, a new Consensus Report of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The U.S. bioeconomy (as defined in the report) is economic activity that is driven by research and innovation in the life sciences and biotechnology, and that is enabled by technological advances in engineering and in computing and information sciences. Based on the report committee’s calculations and available data, the U.S. bioeconomy accounted for about 5.1 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016, representing a dollar value of $959.2 billion. The report addresses definition and measurement of the U.S. bioeconomy (including measurement of intangible assets), evaluates economic and national security risks pertaining to the bioeconomy, considers strategies to safeguard the U.S. bioeconomy, and identifies opportunities for international engagement and cooperation. Some security issues considered included adequacy of investment in R&D and workforce development, intellectual property protection, cybersecurity, data sharing, critical infrastructure vulnerabilities, and climate change risks. The report makes recommendations to improve data collection to better characterize the depth and breadth of the bioeconomy. This includes development of bioeconomy satellite accounts linked to national income accounts, which should include databases of biological information as assets and over time, be expanded to include environmental and health benefits attributable to the bioeconomy. The report identifies basic biological science, engineering, and computing and information sciences and talent development, at all levels, to support these research areas as high priorities for future public investment.

This study was conducted in Meket District, East Amhara National Regional State, in northern Ethiopia. We use cross-sectional data collected from 214 randomly selected farm households via a structured interview protocol. The data were analyzed using inferential statics (one-way ANOVA and chi-square) and regression (a double-hurdle model), with the objective of identifying factors affecting the probability and intensity of use of improved bread wheat varieties and associated technologies in the study area. One-way ANOVA results suggest the adoption intensity of improved bread wheat technologies vary significantly among low-adopter and high-adopter categories. The first hurdle of the double hurdle model suggests number of oxen, mobile phone ownership, education level of the household head and access to extension services significantly affect the probability of improved bread wheat variety adoption (any variety). The intensity of improved bread wheat variety adoption was significantly associated with ownership of main plots, participation in on on-farm demonstrations, perception towards shattering problems of non-improved bread wheat varieties, and annual income. Bread wheat varietal attributes such as high marketability, early maturity, better yield and color were perceived to have greater relative importance for the farmers in the sample. The findings of this study highlight the importance of economic and institutional factors related to agricultural extension and communication, the participation of farmers in on-farm demonstrations, wealth creation and acknowledging farmers’ perception regarding improved bread wheat variety attributes. Development interventions should strive to target such economic, institutional, and psychological factors to promote wider adoption of improved bread wheat technologies.

Investments and public policies aimed at economic models that promote food systems based on environmental sustainability with a view to mitigating the emission of pollutants, if well defined and exploited, can contribute effectively to leverage the global bioeconomy. One of the goals by 2030 is to cut half of the food losses along the chain. This will only be possible if we change unsustainable consumption patterns and reduce the inefficiency of the production and logistics system. The objective of this study is to present a sustainable system of production and consumption called Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). In addition to producing fresh, quality food, CSA prioritizes production close to the place of consumption. This contributes to the mitigation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) and encourages consumers to value food and environmental sustainability, making them aware of the impacts that a food production system provides. Lesser losses and wastes benefit ecosystems, through less use of land, water and biodiversity. In this sense, the implementation and diffusion of sustainable production and consumption programs are essential for economic development and growth, job and income generation, role of women and better use of the environment.

This paper aims to analyze the regional inequalities in bioethanol production focusing on learning and knowledge creation. The idea is that knowledge and learning are the key factors for uneven geographical development in contemporary capitalism. It is also true for agro-industrial systems. The main spatial differentiation in production is not based only in natural conditions, but principally in the capacity of the firm to absorb and apply new knowledge to its productive system. The success of this process depends on both the firm and the region's capabilities. For this study, in bioethanol production, we analyzed the Brazilian Center-South region. It concentered 92.3% of Brazilian sugarcane production and 93.5% of bioethanol production in the harvest of 2018/2019 (Unicadata, 2020). This is a heterogeneous region with areas where the knowledge infrastructure is at a mature level, areas in intermediate level, and areas of new growth where this infrastructure is at the beginning. For capturing this phenomenon, we divided the Centre-South region into three: the traditional regions of production in the State of São Paulo; the new expansion regions in the western of São Paulo; and the complementary regions in other federative units. We divided the knowledge and learning in three dimensions: the worker experience, the worker educational degree, and the academic research about sugarcane. The results show the growth of the accumulation of experience and the improvement of labor education in the western of São Paulo and the complementary regions, but a concentration of academic publications in the traditional regions.

Improving the quality of life in rural areas in Ghana is a key objective of both the past and present governments. Over the past three decades, the government has facilitated the promotion and dissemination of selected agricultural innovations. One of the objectives of this intervention is to achieve equity in income distribution. An extensive literature search has shown no linkage between gender and income distribution, especially in Ghana. Therefore, the study uses a gender lens to evaluate the impact of selected agricultural innovations on gender equity in income distribution in Ghana. The study utilizes a primary dataset generated from nine hundred and seventeen (917) rice farming households and employs a two-stage Bourguignon, Fournier, and Gurgand (BFG) selection bias correction model and Gini-coefficient in the empirical analysis. The result shows that the rice farmers’ who used the selected agricultural innovations registered a higher net return, as compared to their counterpart ones who did not. The result further shows that the use of the selected agricultural innovations decreased the target population income inequality. This finding suggests that the application of the selected agricultural innovations has an equalizing effect. However, the gender analysis shows that the use of the agricultural innovations widened the intra-gender income distribution. The overall lesson from the study is that gender matters when assessing the effect of interventions on the rural economy. The study recommends that government should promote gender mainstreaming in agricultural research to achieve gender equity in rural economy of Ghana.

Population growth and the development of nations include increasing the use of new technologies, connecting “things” and making people's lives easier. The modern and dynamic world lacks high-energy consumption, especially the electric one, capable of providing home comfort, ease of transport and great interaction between people and objects. The inclusion of renewable fuels becomes essential for the development of nations, especially the most needy. In this sense, the development of the bioeconomy can contribute in several ways to the evolution of markets where renewable products such as biomass generate the necessary energy, employment and income for the population. A renewable and continuous economy, which allows the use of productive waste, provides a circular economy, where pollutant emissions are mitigated, reducing the levels of pollutants emitted into the atmosphere. Brazil stands out for the wealth of biomass offers, with emphasis on wood chips and sugarcane bagasse, its attributes of clean and renewable raw material have gained potential market in the country and abroad, since the use of biomass can range from the most basic burning to heat generation, reaching high added value when used in the fine chemical industry. Many agents operating in this market are unaware of the price potential of these products and, in this sense, this study proposes the development of a price indicator for biomass that allows a reduction in information asymmetry between agents, improving the control and management of materials , allowing new studies to open new markets.

The role of climatic factors and the disparity in climatic zones pose a major challenge to the realization of food security in sub-Sahara Africa. This study explored the regional inter-linking influence of climatic dynamics on the realization of food and nutrition security. To bring to the fore the aim of this research, effects of fluctuating temperature, rainfall, precipitation were measured against food and nutrition security in the region; controlled over share of arable land, irrigation, population and labour share for agriculture. Food production index, and undernourished population growth rate were proxies for food and nutritional security indicators respectively. Dynamic panel of generalized method of moments (GMM) was adopted, the period 2000 to 2016 were considered and 29 countries in sub-Sahara Africa were selected within the empirical framework of global water balance as mentioned by Rai and Singh (2012). Findings from the study reveals that fluctuating temperature pose at least 3.0% negative but significant effects on the food production while the control of arable land and agricultural value added product revealed a positive impact on the food production to the tune of 3.6% and 0.25% respectively. Likewise, expansion of arable land and the increase agricultural value-added output decreases the population of the under nourished population to -0.52% and -2.61% respectively. The study therefore recommended expansion in the arable land used for agriculture and promotion of agricultural value addition as an alternative to the mitigation of climatic effects on food and nutrition security.

A sustainable use of land resources is at the core of the bioeconomy, and it is of central importance for development in coming decades. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are reflecting directly or indirectly this aspect of development. Important global trends, such as a growing and richer world population, are consistently increasing demand for biomass products bringing important tradeoffs amongst related goals such as “Zero Hunger” and “Life on Land”. Land supply for biomass production can reveal both the need for cropland as well as pressure in forest areas. Empirical evidence at regional and global scales points to two major sources of sensitivity of land made available for the bioeconomy, its suitability for production and rents that one can accrue from its use. Global models lack, however, an economically consistent picture of the divergence between legal requirements for land use (de jure) and the currently observed land use trends (de facto) in the developing and transition countries where these tradeoffs are expected to be higher. This analysis empirically estimates how sensitive land supply is to spatially heterogeneous implementation effectiveness of land use policy measures. It uses a global and spatially explicit panel data to construct a fixed-effects econometric model to estimate land supply elasticities at a subnational agro-ecological zone (AEZ) level, while controlling for suitability, rent, and governance indicators. Preliminary results support previous evidence that the type of governance improvement (conventional or environmental) determines the likelihood of a reduction or an enhancement of land use tradeoffs across space.

Tucumán (Argentina) es una provincia rica en posibilidades de producción de recursos biológicos para la producción sustentable de bienes y servicios permitiéndole generar diversas oportunidades para insertarse en los mercados, reposicionar las economías regionales facilitando el desarrollo del agregado de valor, como así también responder a los compromisos asumidos para hacer frente al cambio climático. La producción de bioetanol a partir de la caña de azúcar desarrollada por la provincia de Tucumán, surge como un nuevo modelo de socioeconómico basado en la Bioeconomía, contribuyendo a solucionar problemas de escasez energética como así también el aporte que las energías alternativas pueden dar al desarrollo regional. Basándonos en estos conceptos, el presente trabajo tiene por finalidad dimensionar cuantitativamente mediante modelos econométricos el impacto que tiene esta actividad en la economía provincial tomando como indicador indirecto el PBG provincial. Se tomaron como variables de estudio la producción de bioetanol a nivel país y la participación tucumana en el mismo. Como indicadores de la dinámica de estas últimas variables se analizó el valor del cupo fijado por el gobierno que cada empresa debería cumplir; el consumo de naftas, la evolución de los precios, superficie afectada por la producción de caña de azúcar y el gasto público. Como resultado del análisis realizado se pudo observar una incidencia positiva en el desarrollo económico de la provincia de Tucumán, como así también un importante aporte a la matríz energética nacional y al ambiente.

Brazil is one of the largest biofuel producers in the world, especially ethanol and biodiesel, and most of it is consumed in its domestic market, with only a small portion being exported. However, its growing domestic use makes its space in the global value chain increasingly relevant, being incorporated into products internationally traded by Brazil in increasing quantities. Thus, this article aims to discuss the share of biofuels and their fossil substitutes incorporated in the Brazilian international market, paying special attention to transactions with the Chinese market, its main trading partner since 2009. For this purpose, a Multi-Regional Input-output model was developed, with data obtained from the World Input-Output Database (WIOD) platform for 2009. The results show that Brazil had 13.5 PJ of biofuels incorporated in its exports, generating a flow of 2.2 PJ of these energy products exported in Brazilian products to the globe. In addition, 9.3% of all biodiesel and 1.64% of all ethanol used by Brazil were incorporated into products that make up its export agenda. In addition, 12.4% of all biofuels incorporated in the Brazilian export basket were directed to the Chinese market, generating a flow of 1.6 PJ to China. The article also provides an overview of the economic sectors with the largest share of biofuels incorporated in their exports and the potential for growth in the use of this energy source in order to assist decision makers in the creation of public policies and commercial agreements for the development and expansion of the biofuels.

This study identifies the relationship between economic activity and Human Development Index (HDI) as well as the relationship between HDI and CO2 emissions at the microregion level in Brazil using OLS regressions. As a measure of economic activity, we use the night lights intensity. Our results reveal a positive and strong association between these variables. In particular, the elasticity HDI-CO2 suggests that an increase in 1% in the HDI the CO2 emission could increase by 5.9 points percent. In turn, the correlation between night-lights intensity and CO2 emissions is also positive, which reveals that a marginal increase in the nighttime lights is associated with an increase in 1.13 points percent in the tons of CO2 emissions per year. Despite our analyses is based in a simple association, the results are robust to different specifications and units of measures of our main variables. Taken this together, these findings reveal the trade-off between increasing economic activity, improve social welfare and take care of the environment. The results are informative to policymakers due to providing an estimative of potential pollution of CO2 once it is sought to increase the quality of life of the population or the economic activity at the disaggregated level in Brazil.

This paper will explore issues associated with Women in Agribusiness Value Chain Information Management System, Networking and E-Marketing and institutional strengthening for effective and efficient marketing systems in operation. It was observed in the Women and Agriculture Organizational Management literature that whatever measures undertaken by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO, 2007), International Labour Organization (ILO, 1998) and World Trade Organization(WTO) through Government, statutory, private, Non-government and Women Organization in promotion of gender equality is still lacking behind. Though policy development approaches and intervention programmes/project over the past thirty years aim at addressing organizational systems, processes and procedures, women are exclusive and minimal engagement in paid job/ employment in public/private with less promotion at the workplace. Further consideration sought for a specific review on Women in Agribusiness Organization and identify issues and respond to CEDAW Convention and Treaties on how Agriculture Industries promotes the wellbeing of women and advance the agenda of Economic and Security rights of women farmers. for full economic empowerment through the Agriculture Industries and the Informal Market Economy. Most research findings indicate a range of information on how women’s economic and security rights are strengthened enabling their full participation in the normal relationship and the activities that are available in the labour market. However, further analysis would be significant for the broader theoretical understanding of Socio-political and Economic changes impacting and shaping of women’s work with possible policy recommendation and remedies through legislation.

Over the last decade, citizen science (CS) projects have increasingly garnered a reputation as an effective tool in scientific research for their efficiency and ability to promote public engagement. Recent work by Fotheringham and Jobe established a framework for understanding the principles, dynamics, and incentives that allow CS projects to coordinate decentralized voluntary efforts to achieve a common objective. This paper now extends that framework, using four illustrative case studies, to the context of food security and agricultural development challenges facing sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The findings of this comparative case study indicate that CS-inspired projects could offer several promising tools to address poverty and food insecurity where traditional efforts have fallen short. Beyond requiring less government coordination and physical infrastructure, this approach has the potential to more effectively leverage existing capacities, including satellite imagery of land cover, local ethno-agronomic knowledge, widespread mobile phone adoption, and existing development networks. Aligning these capacities to address endemic food security challenges will require a robust policy framework that would ensure continued public support, coordinate existing CS-driven and international development efforts, and promote an eventual shift from human-driven to automated data collection and analysis processes. With these conditions in place, a CS-based approach to development stands to amplify the impact of public agricultural and food security research by extending the tools and information it provides into locally-appropriate and accessible modes of digital agriculture for SSA.

Within the context of food security, maize is one of the most important staple crops in Honduras. This study reports the results of a survey of Honduran farmers that was undertaken to gauge their knowledge, perceptions, opinions and attitudes of genetically modified (GM) maize. A total of 32 farmers of both conventional and GM maize were surveyed in five different states throughout Honduras. Results show that a plurality of surveyed farmers (75%) have vast knowledge of biotechnology, and of GM maize in particular. In general, surveyed farmers have a positive outlook on GM maize, which on average yields 33.3% higher (7.5 ton/ha) than conventional maize (5 ton/ha). Income was also higher among those who cultivated GM maize (42.7% on average) versus those who employed conventional maize varieties. Farmers indicated that the reasons for employing GM maize are: higher income (48%) and ease of crop management (33%) when compared to conventional maize. Overall, GM maize is having a positive impact for Honduran farmers. This study contributes more evidence that GM crops are a viable tool for smallholder farmers in Central America.

Macaúba (Acrocomia aculeata) is a native palm tree found throughout the tropical zone of Latin America. This crop stands out among other palm trees for its positive characteristics as great potential for cultivation in low fertile soils, rehabilitation of natural resources and productive inclusion of small farmers into a promising value chain. Its high oil productivity and the potential for including small farmers have been presented as competitive differentials when compared to the main sources of raw material used by the biodiesel value chains in Brazil, based mostly in soybeans and animal fat sourced by large farmers and agricultural firms. Considering the increasing requirement of tying energy efficiency, environment and social inclusion, macaúba has been raised to the status of a “promise crop” for biodiesel production due to its characteristics. Notwithstanding, there are challenges regarding technological, structural, social, economic and financial aspects in the way. In Brazil there are initiatives to use macaúba for different purposes, aiming different markets, from aviation fuel to cosmetics and food industry. The more consolidated initiatives are based on extractivist systems whereas plantations are still in the primary stages of research and piloting business models. Nevertheless, there is plenty of literature and field research-based information to allow an accounting of the potential of using macaúba oil in the biodiesel sector and for including small family farmers in the promising value chain. This is the aim of this article, which will be based on literature review and field research carried out by the authors.

Peru is the second largest producer of organic cocoa worldwide, what involves more than 90.000 farming families. As an example, in Junín department, there are approximately 8 thousand hectares of cocoa crops with a production of about 2 thousand tons of dry cocoa per hectare. The cocoa pod husk waste produced after obtaining the fermented and dry grain for chocolate industry, corresponds about 67-76% of dry weight of cocoa fruit, and this generates environmental and phytosanitary problems in the region. Traditionally the cocoa pod husk waste, which occupy a large area when discarded, is buried by farmers, developing fungi and proliferating insects. So, they often choose to spray chemicals, in order to accelerate the degradation, resulting in the contamination of the soil, or they decide to burn the cocoa pods, generating air pollution, affecting the health of the community and creating a great danger, since this practice can start fires. We evaluated the use cocoa pod husk waste for the development of biopolymer and composite materials, through the mechanical and chemical transformation of cocoa waste generated. The bio-based materials produced from agro industrial waste represents a great advantage and contribute to the solution of some current problems, reducing costs associated with waste management, and also increasing its added value. Mechanical properties of cocoa pod composites suggest that these can be used like an alternative for wood substitution, reducing deforestation in Peruvian Amazonia.

Agricultural output has increased through gains in productivity and expansion in regions previously considered not viable for agricultural production due to advancements in agricultural technologies. The Borlaug hypothesis posits that technology-induced productivity gains on existing farmland can reduce demand for farmland expansion. Global agricultural output and average yields have steadily increased, while the amount of cropland land, according to FAO, has stayed relatively static since the mid-1990s. Paradoxically, deforestation rates remain high in tropical regions, where forest loss coincides with the expansion of technology-intensive commodity crop production. In this paper, we look at how innovations in soybean production and technology have impacted land use dynamics in three different soybean frontier regions in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. Using qualitative and quantitative data, our analysis traces when and how technological advances in the soybean sector have disseminated across South American agricultural frontiers with associated impacts on land use and land cover change. We find that while technological advances in soybean production may reduce agricultural expansion at a global scale, these same innovations have led to soybean frontier expansion and increased deforestation due to policy gaps and weak environmental governance. Furthermore, technological change at forest frontier regions often have minimal impacts on agricultural prices, suggesting that increased profitability effects, despite potential production increases through intensification, may drive agricultural expansion, leading to a Jevon’s paradox in specific local contexts. We conclude by arguing that spatially explicit assessments are needed to account for total costs and benefits of innovation, as well as adaptive governance measures.

In the last couple of years, there has been widespread concern in connection to air quality and global warming. Hence, governments have begun to adopt more proactive role aiming to reduce the universally known Green House Gases (GHG). The Republic of Argentina is no exception to such phenomena. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate which measures result better fitted so as to generate significant change whilst reducing any possible detrimental effects over the economy and society. Similarly, this work also intends to shed some light over the latent dispute in the literature between the establishment of a carbon tax (25 USD/tCO2eq) and the reduction of subsidies to fossil fuels. Therefore, a multi-sector dynamic recursive (2017-2035) Computable General Equilibrium Model to Argentina was developed with especial treatment for energy, agriculture and (de)forestry modelling, mainly concerned by GHG emissions. GDP, welfare and GHG emissions results suggest that a policy-mix that combines the elimination of fossil fuels subsidies and a carbon tax on sectors linked to an intensive land use would be both, environmentally and socio-economic preferable than a generalized carbon tax which may be extremely damaging to the industrial sectors. Conclusions of this work lead to climate change policy recommendations for countries with similar characteristics to Argentina.

The recent discussion on the availability of biomass in Europe points to untapped potential in the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs). In CEECs, actual yields of most crops lag behind their potential, and in many regions a lot of land is idle. This suggests that these countries could have a comparative advantage in producing biomass relative to the western EU Member States, where most of the agricultural land is cultivated, and the yield gap is much smaller. On the other hand, western EU Member States, such as Germany or The Netherlands, have been much more active in supporting their bioeconomies, among other things, through adopting national bioeconomy strategies. It is therefore reasonable to assume that businesses find it easier to develop technologies and establishing production of bio-based products in the Western Europe. In this paper, we empirically test a hypothesis that CEECs primarily export low-value-added biomass commodities and import high-value-added processed bio-based products from the west. They may have large potential for biomass production, but further processing into more valuable products is done in western countries. To test our hypothesis, we estimate a gravity model based on a panel data for biomass and bio-based products trade among 27 EU Member States over the period 2004 – 2018. The panel comprises intra-EU trade in goods aggregated at the three-digit level in the CPA 2008 system of Eurostat. Our paper contributes to the literature by comprehensively assessing EU bioeconomy trade, going beyond the analysis of agri-food trade flows.

We analyze the influence of monetary policy, across international and national interest rates, on the price of several commodities produced in Brazil. The literature indicates the existence of a reverse relationship between the interest rate and the real commodity price. Thus, for example, with low-interest rates the opportunity cost of retaining inventories is reduced, the demand for these products is increased and consequently, the prices are pushed up, ceteris paribus. In addition, low-interest rates tend to depreciate the domestic currency by raising the prices of these products in domestic terms. Taking this into consideration, we classify the commodities into storable and non-storable and commodities for the internal and external demand in order to identify the sensitivity of each one to the shocks of international and national interest rates. We estimate a Vector Error Correction and Impulse Response Functions for each commodity. The results indicate the existence of an inverse relationship between international and national interest rates, and the real commodity price produced in Brazil. In general, the responses to the shocks occur until the third month and the accentuation around the fifth. Regarding the categories, it was not possible to classify the sensitivity of each group, because no significant differences were identified between them. As robustness, the series under study were smoothed using the Hodrick-Prescot filter. The results showed more attenuated shocks in the same direction as the previous ones. These findings can help to identify possible changes in inflationary expectations mainly in countries with inflation targeting regimes like Brazil.

The bioeconomy framework emphasizes potential contributions of life sciences to produce novel, bio-based products and to make economic use of what would otherwise be waste in traditional production. To best exploit the bioeconomy perspective, economists should develop conceptual models of behavior and markets that integrate biophysical concepts and economic decision-making. The question of waste reduction along the supply chain of bio-based products is particularly difficult within the bioeconomy context, because loss levels – and the diversion of biomass to novel uses – depend on relative net benefits expected from adopting loss-abating technologies and management strategies. Without understanding responses of rational decision makers, it is difficult to anticipate the effects on levels of final product prices and consumer welfare due to new, waste-reducing technologies. This paper analyzes the incentive structure along the value chain where rational agents determine sales, losses and waste diversion to new uses. We present a model of farmers, intermediaries, and buyers accounting for decision factors which eventually result in total losses, and diversion to novel, alternative uses, such as biofuels, taking a bioeconomy approach to examining the food chain as a whole. The modeling strategy begins with individual decision rules and follows the consequences for production levels, losses, alternative waste use, and welfare indicators in a market equilibrium. We demonstrate how prices communicate across decision points in the value chain, how waste reduction or diversion to biofuels at a particular point disseminates within the chain, and the expected outcomes in terms of overall losses and alternative uses for waste.

In June, 2019 USDA formally proposed a new rule for assessing genetically engineered plant varieties (GEPV) that would determine those varieties to be approved if such varieties could have been developed using traditional plant breeding techniques. The outcome, according to the regulatory authorities and industry, would be a less onerous and less costly regulatory process for many new GEPVs. The adoption of those varieties by agricultural producers is therefore likely to be contingent on consumer acceptance both in the US domestic market and in export markets, especially for commodities used for human consumption. Here the regulation of GEPVs in the EU becomes important. We discuss how the EU regulation may affect international trade and research on GEPV and pay special attention to the Lanham act. We use an investment under uncertainty framework to compare alternative regualtory scenarios. The results show that China will become the leading developer of GEPVs is very likely and that is will strengthen their ties with Africa. Development in the US and Canada will be limited by international trade issues.

Water scarcity and the problem of low water quality is a growing concern worldwide, thus demanding urgent policy intervention. This study uses the double-bounded bid elicitation format to test the willingness to pay for wastewater quality improvements in the Infulene Valley, where wastewater is used as an input in vegetable irrigation. A total of 244 residents was randomly selected from Maputo and Matola cities. WTP was elicited and compared when the level of wastewater treatment was 100 % and when it was 50 %. The WTP responses passed the bottom up (t= 15.28, p=0.000) and top down (t=14.07, p=0.000) internal and external (t=13.43, p=0.000) scope tests, suggesting that the level of wastewater treatment significantly influences households’ WTP. Income, age, education level, household size, gender were factors influencing household water scarcity incidence. The study concluded that the level of water treatment is a significant factor of preference over the alternative policy in wastewater treatment. While this study provides an estimate of household values for irrigation water quality improvements in the Infulene Valley, is ultimately up to policy makers at the city and country levels to implement any changes.

The research assesses the state of the art at Brazilian industry of agents for biological control in agricultural production. To this end, the study provides a current overview of the regulation, production and use of bio-inputs of this type in soybean and corn crops in the country. It is discussed the economic viability of a project to build a bio-factory for on-farm production of agents for biological control. The economic viability analysis is based on primary data of the spending required to implement a bio-factory, as well as on the returns obtained with the reduction of chemical inputs use. The information was obtained in a field research with soybean and corn producers who use biological control as the main pest management strategy in their crops. The results of the study indicate that the bio-factory is economically viable in farms with large cultivated area or in collective actions of small and medium producers. The construction of laboratories for product quality control and testing has a significant impact on the economic viability of the project. Partnerships for the use of infrastructure and knowledge at public research organizations can reduce spending on the construction of bio-factories and encourage the diffusion of biological control agents in Brazil.

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is still a public health problem among children under 5 in Uganda. Genetically modified (GM) bananas have a potential to reduce VAD particularly among the vulnerable populations in banana growing regions in Uganda. However, pending commercialization of GM crops in Uganda, there is need to project the demand and the existing market size for the nutritionally enhanced GM bananas (i.e., Biofortified High-Provitamin A banana). This paper applied Contingent Valuation Method to assess consumers’ willingness to pay and the potential demand for Biofortified High-Provitamin A GM cooking banana among 233 banana consuming households. Results show that consumers were willing to pay UGX 21000 (USD5.7) per an average 22 kilogram-sized bunch of nutritionally enhanced GM banana. The potential demand for the biofortified GM banana is estimated at 2.6 million metric tons per annum. The results suggest that there is a huge market for nutritionally enhanced GM bananas, if they are commercially released and adopted by farmers in Uganda. In case of delays in regulatory approval and release of a new variety, Uganda would forego approximately UGX 2,542 billion (USD 673.5 million) per annum.

Biofuels are a masterpiece of the bioeconomy. Its development must combine environmental care and private profitability. The current pricing system as an inducer of private decisions and allocator of social resources becomes critical on: i) establish and promote new sources of renewable energy (long term); ii) guarantee offer and profitability (short term). The energy-intensive paradigm, based on fossil fuels, responds to short-term private price signals but generates long-term distortions (it does not include negative externalities or sustainability demands). A shift towards a sustainable energy matrix demands a two-way response: creating the fundamental rules for a new market (“bio-energies”) and establishing a long-term price set that includes environmental restrictions (adjusting private profitability criteria to social objectives). Given the difficulties of the market in making both objectives compatible, state interventions appear. The different pricing schemes have been a fundamental piece in the design of the regulatory frameworks that generated different biofuel markets. Four main mechanisms are distinguished: prices set by the Application Authority, pure bids, conditional tenders and free competition schemes. These schemes have been complemented, in some cases, by schemes that attempt to correct market imperfections (negative externalities) such as the effect of fossil fuels on climate change. The work begins with a theoretical review of the difficulties of the pricing mechanism to allocate the non-renewable resources. Subsequently, it analyses cases of state interventions in biofuel markets.

The article approaches the National Biofuels Policy - RenovaBio / Law 13,576 / 2017 - and its participation in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) set by Brazilian government under the Paris Agreement. The research aims to discuss operational aspects of programs institutionalized by RenovaBio, such as the fuels matrix annual decarbonization targets, the certification of biofuels production units and the market for decarbonization credits (CBIOs). Based on a sample of 140 producing units, this study applies data envelopment analysis (DEA) to assess the energy-environmental efficiency of hydrated sugarcane ethanol production in Brazil. The DEA constant return to scale (CCR-I) model uses as inputs the amount of nitrogen consumed per ton of cane produced (Kg Nitrogen / Ton Cane) and the area of cane burnt in each production unit. The output is an agricultural carbon intensity index (g CO2eq / MJ), which captures the greenhouse gases emitted in the agricultural production stage of a given volume of cane ethanol, expressed in megajoule. The DEA model assesses whether the output level justifies the amount of inputs used in each production unit and allows the identification of inefficiencies sources and benchmark units. That for, DEA results provides a measure of the increase in CBIOs that ethanol production units can obtain improving its energy-environmental efficiency.

Rwanda’s land consolidation program, aims to improve food security by increasing agricultural productivity. The policy focuses on monocropping and commercializing six priority crops: maize, wheat, wrce, irish potato, beans and cassava. Since its conception, the CIP has facilitated easy access to improved seed stocks, fertilizer, extension services, post-harvest handling and storage services. Despite various reports confirming considerable increased farm yield, less is known about the CIP effect on food prices. In this study, we examine the crop food price differences in high intensive monocropped CIP and low intensive monocropped CIP areas in Rwanda. Specifically, the study evaluates price variations of beans and maize along with complementary food crops in high and low intensive monocropped areas before and after the introduction of the CIP policy. We find that the CIP policy did not create CIP crop price differences between the high and low intensive monocropped areas. Over time prices increased for CIP crops but generally the crop prices in the two regions were cointegrated, i.e. moved together over time. Prices for non-CIP crops in the two different areas did show price differentials with the high intensive monocropped areas prices being higher than the low intensive monocropped ares. This implies that farmers that intensely produced one CIP crop faced higher prices for the other crops they had to purchase for consumption. Based on these findings, there is a need to improve local infrastructure and market linkages to allow an equalization and stabilization of all food prices in the country.

The increasing threat of plant pests is a worldwide phenomenon mainly due to the globalization of the plant trade and the effects of climate change. With scarce resources to set up systematic controls for all potential pests becomes uneconomical and these have to be focused on those which have most severe impacts. At the EU level plant health legislation calls for the identification of "priority pests" which will be subject of surveying, contingency plans, simulation exercises and action plans. In this paper we develop a composite index that translates the legislative provisions of Regulation 2016/2031 into measurable indicators and apply it to 28 quarantine pests short-listed by Member States. The composite index is comprised of 25 indicators grouped into 10 sub-domains and 3 domains to cover the most important economic, social and environmental impacts. The index incorporates uncertainty in three ways: considering the uncertainty of biophysical impacts associated with pest outbreaks when calculating the weights, providing specific rankings for pests affecting annual crops, permanent crops and trees, and undertaking sensitivity analysis with regards to weighting. The results allow identifying the pests for which the potential impact is most severe and therefore should be designated priority pests. Key words: Plant Health, EU Legislation, Composite Index, Indicators.

Biorefineries represent a key element in the European bio-based sector and are specifically addressed in the 2018 revision of the Bioeconomy Strategy. Biorefining is one of the key enabling strategies of the circular economy, closing the loop in raw biomass materials, minerals, water and carbon. The description of the distribution of biorefineries together with an analysis of the main feedstock sources and products is key to describe the status of the bio-based sector in the European Union and the main drivers for its future development. The JRC made a first attempt in 2018 to provide a description of emerging biorefineries in the EU. This study aims to present an updated overview of the distribution of the bio-based industry in the EU, with a broader scope compared to the previous work. The new update will include facilities using biomass (of first, second and so-called third generation) to produce the following:

- bio-based chemicals

- liquid biofuels

- bio-based composites and fibres

- pulp and paper

- biomethane

- starch, sugar and derived products

- timber

The biorefineries distribution will be integrated with a better representation of facilities at a pilot/demo stage. The study will provide an interactive map of the facilities and a transversal analysis based on the type of products and feedstock sources. Biorefineries corresponding to a broader or stricter definition will be shown, including the identification of those facilities in which the manufacturing of products is integrated with the production of energy from the biomass feedstock.

Given the framework of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the world has initiated a transition process to long-term structural changes in order to strengthen the global response for climate change (SDG 13 and Paris Agreement), for instance, motivating the provision of affordable and clean energy (SDG 7) and developing sustainable cities (SDG 11). Argentina has taken these commitments, but national strategies and plans are not always in line with regional goals, requiring national-regional coordination. Our objective is to evaluate the regional impact of national climate change measures on energy production and consumption (local households and sectors) and on the associated GHG emissions. The analysis of policies requires the representation of both economies (region and country) with a relevant and common sector disaggregation according to the case study. However, scarcity and incomplete sectoral information available at the regional level would be the main limitation, restricting the analysis only at the country level as most papers do. In order to fill this gap, we propose a methodology that allows, in a simple and inexpensive way, to regionalized national Input-Output Tables (IOT) with a flexible sector disaggregation. This methodology combines, on the one hand, statistical techniques for indirect estimation of intra-regional coefficients based on regionalization of national technical coefficients, and on the other, matrix rebalancing methods (RAS and cross-entropy) to obtain inter-regional coefficients for trade estimation between national regions. The estimated regional matrix to Buenos Aires illustrates this method and allows using an input-output approach to simulate the national-regional problem related to GHG emissions.

In the last few decades, a variety of new genomic techniques (NGTs) has been developed and applied on several organisms, beyond the well known transgenesis methods. Thanks to the last advances in biotechnology, genomic techniques are becoming every time more efficient and precise and the potential applications are multiplying in different fields, including agricultural, pharmaceutical and industrial fields. NGTs include, among others, different uses of site-directed nucleases, like e.g. TALEN and CRISPR, but also the last developments in RNA interference and epigenetic modifications. The JRC is carrying out a review of current applications of NGTs that are marketed worldwide, or are in a near-market development stage. In particular, data about NGT applications in plants, animals and microorganisms are collected from different sources, including public authorities’ databases, literature, patents, companies’ websites and online datasets and, and are classified in the following development stages:

1. Commercial products: NGT products currently marketed in at least one country worldwide

2. Pre-commercial stage: NGT products authorized in at least one country worldwide for commercialization

3. Regulatory stage: NGT products in the regulatory process to be marketed in at least one country worldwide

4. Advanced R&D stage: NGT products not yet in the regulatory process but at late stages of development.

Data are integrated and validated through an international workshop that puts together regulators from different countries and public and private technology providers. Data will be presented to describe the current state-of-the-art of these techniques and the future trends for new applications and technological developments.

Bioeconomy has emerged as a key cutting element in building resilience capacities, in improve resource efficiencies, climate resilience and sustainable production systems. However, there are less agreements on the bioeconomy pathways that countries should take. This plethora of factors affecting pathways of bioeconomy, leads to complex questions arising around the conceptualisation, operationalization, and measurements (evaluation) of bioeconomy. Therefore, the assessment of pathways of bioeconomy towards building resilience capacities against climate change shocks, and the practical application of answers and tools given in response to these questions becomes a central concern. The overall objective of the study is to identify bioeconomy pathways across Southern African countries, emphasizing the role of innovation, development linkages and governance requirements. The study uses a systematic country study approach, which analyses how the bioeconomy is integrated in national frameworks and which innovations, strategies and policy decisions are taken by countries to substantially improve resilience to climatic shocks and stresses, while drawing lessons from such successes, for other countries to replicate. A set of policies and innovations are identified, that could have significant impact on improving both risk reduction and adaptation elements in Africa, if scaled up. This study therefore, provides an alternative, comprehensive and dynamic approach of understanding bioeconomy pathways as a concept in the southern African context and how best strategies can be designed, implemented, monitored and evaluated.

Nigerian population is predicted to hit 400 million by 2050. The yields of crops and livestock are very low at farmer’s level. The adverse effects of climate change and high post harvest losses in agriculture worsens the food and nutrition deficit situation. One way out of the food crisis is the deployment of Biotechnology. This will require the use of improved seeds and access to information on Good Agronomic practice (GAP). Agricultural biotechnology is the most dependable solution and can mitigate climate change through the use of climate smart crops, energy efficient farming, reduced synthetic fertilizer usage and carbon sequestration. Recent studies by some Nigerian scientists have reported that the Nigerian Bt cotton is a climate smart crop. The Bt cotton is able to grow well with minimal water requirement. This will also go a long way in salvaging the drought situation in the North East and North West of Nigeria. Advances in breeding help agriculture achieve higher yields and meet the needs of expanding population with limited land and water resources. Will biotechnology benefit small holder farmers? Analysis of previous government policies showed that Small holder farmers can benefit from biotechnology if government provides adequate funding for developing public sector research capacities in biotechnology and for brokering effective public–private linkages. A strong state and public extension service is also necessary if small holder farmers will benefit form biotechnology. It is recommended that Nigeria needs to reshape her agricultural system in order to cope with the rising population

In Brazil, the ethanol production cycle in the 2000s occurred within a context marked by strong deregulation of markets, international liquidity of capital and the emergence of environmental concerns that strengthened the clean and renewable energy market. Large investments in cogeneration projects, expansion of ethanol mills and greenfield happened in this environment. However, as inclusion is a key aspect of fair local development, there are doubts about how inclusiveness was embedded in the Brazilian expansion process. Although the sugarcane expansion brings more jobs and income (Moraes et al 2015), second the RRI (Responsible Research and Innovation) approach, inclusion as a participatory process in biofuel’s development was not a reality. This article aims to verify how inclusion can be understood in Brazil's sugarcane expansion context (the five biggest sugarcane expansion rates). To analyze this, we have focused on 3 types of impacts: land concentration, food security, and working conditions. Each of them is analyzed comparing local stakeholders’ perceptions (collected through field research) and secondary data from official databases. The preliminary results show a change in the business model of crop acquisition that implies the inclusion of farmers in the sugarcane value chain, a positive impact on working conditions due to the better formalization of the contracts and positive impact on food access, one of the dimensions of food security. The conclusion points that, although there was imperfect or no inclusion as a process, the local community does feel the inclusion as an outcome of this process.

Grand-Bassam, a UNESCO World Heritage city located in the south of Côte d'Ivoire, is subject to recurrent river and flash flooding, with numerous human, material and economic damages. The objective of this study was to identify and map flood-prone areas using multi-criteria analysis to improve the resilience of populations and risk management. This multi-criteria analysis approach allows the integration of multi-source data. The methodological approach used is Fuzzy-Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) method which is the combination of fuzzy logic and AHP method. FAHP method includes the important procedures of the determination of weights of various factors, the quantitative analysis of these factors, and the establishment of the comprehensive calculation model. Fuzzy was used to objectively establish the classes of the different factors identified and AHP was used to weight the factors retained for the evaluation and flood zones. The FAHP map of flood risk areas showed that high and very high flood risk areas cover 64% of the city of Grand-Bassam with respectively 46% of high-risk areas and 18% of very high flood risk areas. Considering the results obtained, Grand-Bassam appears as a very vulnerable city. Therefore, effective adaptation strategies to assist in decision-making are crucial in the context of sustainable development.

During the last 10 years, our institute has been working in biofuels sustainability issues. A wide range of aspects has been investigated form social and economic indicators to energy balance, carbon and water footprints and environmental assessments. The scope of the studies has covered biodiesel, bioethanol and biogas companies all over Argentina. During these years important improvements have been made form the methodological and calculation side and from the efficiency and environmental performance of the plants. First-generation biofuels are achieving significative GHG savings surpassing 70 % in many cases. Complementing this studies new default values for feedstock production have been calculated and presented to the European Union for its approval. During this period environmental requirements have also changed requiring better performance in all types of biofuels. Improvements detected in Argentine plants are based in technology, Cynergy between different biofuels productions as bioethanol + biogas plants and the development of new coproducts as for example carbon dioxide in bioethanol plants. This multiplication of products and the consequences on fossil fuel use improves the overall performance using consequential calculations. Studies are also the base for certification of biofuels necessary to enter and compete in key markets. Through the time Argentina has consolidated a strong relationship between the private industry and the research institutes as INTA enabling improvements in the whole production chain. Specific studies have also been conducted on 2G biofuels in Argentina and the resulted achieved are still long behind 1G alternatives in the country.

The bioeconomy consists of the capture of free energy, its transformation into biomass and the subsequent integral and sustainable industrialization of all its derivatives. Unlike the previous paradigm, it is based on the use of renewable energies, biological materials and partially uses living beings (modified) as agents of transformation of matter. The bio-economic factory ("bio-factories") manipulates raw materials of very variable qualities over time, uses living beings (plant and animal genetics, enzymes, bacteria and the like) that can evolve as capital goods and develops processes subject to constant changes. It is an open system of production, constantly variable, subject to evolution and learning. Much of its efficiency and genuine competitiveness lie in the way of coordinating input output flows, applying technologies and constantly adjusting production, The traditional industrial organization is based on efficiently controlling mechanical or chemical transformation processes of inert raw materials in controlled times; The workforce is organized following the plant lay out and reflects the rigidity of the technology. Subcontracting is limited to precise definitions of products and processes. Applying these principles to bio-factory forces us to rethink your industrial organization. The present work is focused on analysing the specificities of the industrialization of biological: i) raw materials with varying qualities; ii) transformation processes with biological times not controllable by man; iii) translators of raw materials into products that are constantly evolving, and iv) supply contracts that are subject to high volatility of processes that demand constant adjustments.

Aflatoxin is a fungal toxin that infects agricultural crops, such as corn and peanuts. It threatens the health of consumers by causing liver cancer and decreases farmers’ profits by reducing yields. Bt corn is a genetically modified hybrid, which produces crystal proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis that are toxic to pests. Bt corn is associated with aflatoxin accumulation by reducing kernel damage that causes fungal infection. However, the aflatoxin-controlling effect of Bt may decrease because evidence of resistance has been reported. Seeds with ribonucleic acid interference (RNAi) are a promising control method of aflatoxin. RNAi is a biological process that regulates gene expression and anti-viral defense. When fungus infects the plant with double stranded RNA (dsRNA), dsRNA activates RNAi to turn off the targeted messenger RNA (mRNA) (the aflC gene in the case of aflatoxin) to suppress aflatoxin production. The purpose of this study is to assess incentives to adopt the new hybrid, i.e., Bt combined with RNAi seed that targets aflatoxin, and to predict the adoption rate. This study contributes to the prediction of the market price of new seed (Bt+RNAi) as well as an analysis of the cost-effectiveness of the seed as an aflatoxin control method. I will predict the adoption rate of Bt+RNAi corn seed using historical corn seed choices: Viptera seed and non-Viptera Bt seed. Because Viptera is highly associated with aflatoxin, I assume that the demand for Viptera partially reflects the demand for aflatoxin-controlled seed.

The growing plant-based bioeconomy relies not only on significant advances in technologies, but also on a sufficient supply of biomass, leading to additional challenges for agriculture. An increasing number of studies support the possibility of the reversal of smaller farms. However, literature attributes this development mainly to the effects of (dis)economies of scale in a strong economic infrastructure separately, seldom considering the interaction between optimal scale and minimal transaction cost. Against this backdrop, this study aims to anticipate the potential structural change of agriculture by examining the effects of the transition of bioeconomy on the (dis)economy of scale and transaction costs, given a growing demand for agricultural non-food biomass in Germany. Since interaction between transaction cost and economy of scale depends on the degree of asset specificity, an approach of transaction cost with asset specificity and economy of scale is employed to simulate four scenarios of non-food biomass production from 2017 to 2030, namely (1) neutral to scale technologies; (2) increasing demand for non-food biomass; (3) different responses from farm groups to the increasing demand; (4) regional ownership structure. Our results indicate that the increasing demand of non-food biomass will encourage more farms to involve in non-food biomass production during 2017 to 2030. Our results also imply the farm size of non-food biomass production will decrease with the increasing demand of biomass because of the interaction between transaction cost and (dis)economy of scale.

Given that current patterns of energy consumption and production are severely stressing natural and social systems, it is required not only an improvement in an efficient use of energy but also on an environmentally sustainable production of energy. In this context, the use of biomass as a renewable source of energy generation could allow a clean energy production, particularly in regions where there is a natural comparative advantage and where the access of other sources of energy is expensive. This is the case of Misiones, a province of Argentina, which displays a high potential for energy production through biomass from its forestry activity. The main objective of this article is to evaluate the net social benefit of the development and the investment (technology, infrastructure, etc.) on bioenergy from biomass in this province. For that we have developed a regional input-output model for Misiones vis-à-vis the rest of the Argentina. Thus, results concerning sectorial output, employment and GHG emissions are discussed for Misiones and the complete country, where trade-offs and spillovers can arise between regions of the country. Three scenarios are simulated: one in which energy production doubles, another in which the existing production capacity is expanded through investments and finally the production and investment costs needed to expand production to potential levels are valued. Our conclusions would provide some policy recommendations for boosting (or not) the development of the biomass as source of energy generation in Argentina given current regulations and programs on the sector which are not regionally oriented.

Este trabajo estudia nuevas oportunidades para el desarrollo económico generadas en actividades basadas en RRNN renovables, particularmente en agricultura y ganadería. Con tal propósito analizamos las principales transformaciones ocurridas en estas actividades en los últimos años y nos focalizamos en el surgimiento de servicios intensivos en conocimientos de base digital (“agtech”). Realizamos una encuesta a 36 empresas proveedoras de dichos servicios con el objetivo de caracterizar el ecosistema tecno-productivo agtech en Argentina. Dicha encuesta, realizada entre mayo y julio de 2018, recolectó información sobre las características estructurales y la dinámica en innovación de estas firmas. Por último, realizamos un estudio de caso para profundizar en los factores centrales que posibilitan el nacimiento y posterior crecimiento de dichas empresas. Los resultados obtenidos muestran un conjunto de empresas de nueva generación, altamente innovadoras y de rápida internacionalización. El caso de estudio ejemplifica estos aspectos y además muestra como la combinación de elementos del contexto local –e.g. una demanda dispuesta a adoptar innovaciones e incluso a colaborar en su desarrollo y la disponibilidad de capital humano calificado- sumados al desarrollo de capacidades internas a la firma fueron centrales para su crecimiento tanto a nivel local como internacional.

The main purpose of the paper is to assess the impact of public agricultural research effort on agricultural total factor productivity in Argentina. The approach is based on TFP accounting and econometric techniques applied to annual data over the period 1958–2016 to fit the relationship between agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) and agricultural research expenditures. We use the total spending of the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA), the main applied agricultural research institute of Argentina, as a proxy for public research effort. The results show that the annual TFP growth rate was, on average, approximately 2%. The econometric results were sensitive to specification choices related to lag structure. The preferred econometric model includes, a time-trend variable, climate variables as well as a variable representing the stock of public agricultural knowledge with a lag distribution of 15 years. Estimates show an elasticity of TFP to the stock of public knowledge that vary in a range between 0.20 and 0.34 depending on the specifications. These values are comparable to those reported in previous studies that use similar methodologies. Investment in agricultural research have positive and significant rates of return. Estimates of IRR vary between 6% and 12% depending on discount rates and specifications. Likewise, Benefit-Cost ratios are relatively high, between 35 and 63, implying a high return associated with the expenses in research activities.

Adoption of the GM technologies has been a huge challenge especially in Africa. Meanwhile it is counter intuitive to think that Africa will ever be able to achieve food sufficiency while causing the least damage to environment by cutting out a chunk of the available tools - biotechnology -to precisely and more effectively achieve that set goal. In Nigeria’s case, after several years of labor and hard won battles, it has approved the growing of Bt cotton and then followed up with Bt Cowpeas. While these are huge achievements, there are still a myriad of bottlenecks in effectively getting the seeds to the vast majority of farmers that need to grow them. So the methodology of this submission interfaces with findings from research, government ,policy and regulatory bodies and most importantly interrogates the bottlenecks from the view of Agri-business industry practitioners i.e. seed companies, seed producers and multipliers, farmers and farmer groups. Then synthesizes new thinking based on these feedback to make recommendation that will enhance the system to be more effective. Nigeria being a forerunner in adopting biotech in not only an industrial crop but food crop in the region as well as considering her influential stance on the continent, this study becomes a model easily adaptable and can be tweaked to specifics for some other African nations .It also makes for a more apt framework for the eventual deployment of products made from even more precise gene editing methods such as CRISPR.

Intellectual property rights (IPRs) protection influences the use and application of crop biotechnology. It is often argued that without the IPRs, the life sciences industries would have no incentives to spend the resources necessary to develop new crops. The aim of this paper is to identify and assess issues of IPRs and their influence on soybean biotechnology research and development (R&D) by examining Monsanto’s Roundup Ready (RR®) soybean in one of the major soybeans producing nations of the world, Brazil, with comparison to the contexts of Canada and USA. Drawing from data obtained through document review and in-depth key informant interviews, the research discusses the challenges of protection and enforcement of IPRs, which in turn, influences the uptake and R&D of soybean in plant breeding and in the farmers’ fields. It shows the role of key institutions, such as EMBRAPA, and changing technology due to patent expiration. Findings show that RR® first generation soybean is profoundly important, despite the marketing to encourage farmers to quickly switch-over to the RR® second generation soybean. The research indicates also the availability of generic traits post-patent expiration, which is only confined to the public research institutions. This however, can be influenced by the performance advantages with new traits and demand for enhanced seed biotechnology. Findings indicate that a technology fee is a major issue for life sciences industries and farmers related to the case study. This paper concludes with recommendations for further research and action on the management of IPRs.

The sugarcane expansion has occurred intensively during the first decade of the present century, motivated by the growing presence of ethanol in bionergy Brazilian scenery. Field research carried in 2016 with 353 stakeholders in five regions (Postal et Al., 2020) showed, in positive perception of the expansion process, persisting along the last decade. The goal of this study is to check the hypothesis that the NGO’s critics, based on "food vs. feed" dilemma, social degradation, and environmental damages, are misleading, not taking into account local/regional processes. We adopt three steps to confirm the accuracy of the perceptions and qualify the importance of local and regional issues: a) collect data at the municipal level to characterize the expansion processes, and the social and environmental changes occurred from the year 2000 up to 2016; b) performing multivariate analysis to obtain an Interactive Clustering Tree (Whaley,1982) with the cutting points of variables related to the impacts of the expansion; c) identifying the path to good/bad views of sugarcane expansion, using Fuzzy Set QCA(Ragin, 2000). The results show that the effect on other agribusiness is not relevant, accommodating land-use change inside the region. Mechanization has a positive impact on the stakeholder's view. Land concentration and the worsening of living conditions are linked to soybean/corn belts and the sugarcane expansion contributed to lessens those effects. Finally, negative perceptions are due to the fact that the expansion of sugarcane went towards regions with less capacity to encompass mitigating collective actions in comparison with traditional regions.

The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) has increase corn ethanol production threefold between 2006 and 2016 and raised fertilizer use by 12%, contributing to agricultural runoff to the Gulf of Mexico. There has also been skepticism about the greenhouse gas mitigation benefits of the corn ethanol mandate due to its potential to lead to indirect land use change. The purpose of this study is threefold: i) evaluate the N-related damages and greenhouse gas mitigation benefits of the RFS going forward over the 2016-2030 period and implementing the cellulosic biofuel mandate, ii) determine the economic costs of the Corn-only and Full (corn-only plus cellulosic) mandate and iii) estimate the social welfare costs of these policies over this period. We integrate an ecosystem and economic model to synchronously estimate the social welfare costs of the Corn-only + Cellulosic, along with the Corn-only mandate to the U.S. economy by including both economic and environmental (N-damages and greenhouse mitigation benefits) costs. We find that compared to the no-biofuel policy scenario, both mandates will significantly increase the economic and environmental costs. We estimate that while the mandates are effective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing fertilizer use will substantially increase the environmental damage costs that more than offset the greenhouse gas reduction benefits. We calculate the U.S. economy will incur $306 billion social welfare costs over 2016-2030 due to the implementation of the Corn-only mandate $394 billion due to further implementation of the cellulosic biofuel mandate.

To understand the impacts of support programs on global emissions, this paper considers the impacts of domestic subsidies, price distortions at the border and investments in emission-reducing technologies on global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture. It uses a counterfactual global model scenario showing how much emissions would change if agricultural support were abolished worldwide. Without subsidies paid directly to farmers output of some emission-intensive activities, and agricultural emissions, would be smaller. Without agricultural trade protection, however, emissions would be higher. This is partly because protection reduces global demand more than it increases global agricultural supply, and partly because some countries that currently tax agriculture have high emission intensities. Policies that directly reduce emission intensities yield much larger reductions in emissions than those that reduce emission intensities by increasing overall productivity because overall productivity growth creates a rebound-effect by reducing product prices and expanding output. A key challenge is designing policy reforms that effectively reduce emissions without jeopardizing other key goals such as improving nutrition and reducing poverty.

This research investigates the extent to which countries use public standards as a means of political retaliation in the international policy arena. We construct a dataset that matches the adoption of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards between 1996--2015 with SPS committee data on specific trade concerns and annual, bilateral trade flows. We evaluate the presence and frequency of retaliation by assessing the extent to which measured imposed by one country against another increase the probability that the country targeted with the original measure will respond with a measure of their own. We observe that this type of tit-for-tat behavior commonly occurred outside the product group of the original measure and for politically strategic goods. At the two-digit level, we find that about 3,000 bilateral trade flows globally---or just over $110 billion in trade---were subject to retaliatory standards in 2015.

Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected mosquitoes. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the disease caused approximately 220 million infections and 400,000 deaths in 2018, with most of these cases occurring in the poorest regions of the world. Growing anti-microbial resistance to all existing anti-malarial drugs has led public health officials to seek other options for disease control. Recent bio-technology innovations have shift to controlling the vector (i.e. mosquitoes) rather than treating the parasite in infected persons. We consider two such interventions, a genetic modification of mosquitoes to introduce a gene for sterility and a genetically modified fungus that kills mosquitoes, which have shown promising results in field tests in Burkina Faso. However, these genetic modifications have been met with some public concern that these interventions may have unpredictable ripple effects that harm humans or the environment. In this research, we develop an integrated epidemiological-economic model calibrated with field trial results from Burkina Faso to assess the impacts of localized interventions on long-term disease morbidity, mortality, and resistance to anti-microbial drugs.

The National Biodiesel Production and Use Program (PNPB) was implemented in Brazil, among other objectives, with the aim of promoting regional development in peripheral regions and the social inclusion of family farming as a supplier of raw material for the plants of biodiesel. Thus, this work aims to evaluate and compare the different socioeconomic impacts of the biodiesel sector on family farming and other economy sectors of the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Mato Grosso, which are the largest producers of biodiesel in Brazil and have structural and regional differences. The Input-Product Theory was used as a methodological basis, accompanied by the collection of secondary and complementary data to understand the structure of the biodiesel chain and family farming in these States. The research shows that the production of biodiesel via family farming in Rio Grande do Sul is 66 times greater than Mato Grosso, generating approximately 19 thousand jobs, which is explained by the great development of the agricultural sector in Rio Grande do Sul. Among other results, in comparison with fossil diesel, one million barrels of oil of family biodiesel in Rio Grande do Sul generates 7.7 thousand jobs, while on the fossil route it generates 1.6 thousand jobs. In terms of wealth generation, the greater impact of biodiesel production on the Brazilian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is justified by its price being higher than mineral diesel oil.

Argentina faces a double challenge: on the one side, to support and strengthen the economic development process with the enlargement and enhancement of the energy matrix; and on the other side, the country adhered to the global trend towards renewable energy development incentivizing. There the potential of the unconventional renewable energy (URE) stands out especially, and dendroenegy in particular. In order to stimulate bioenergy production from ad hoc forest plantations as much as by using forest by-products, it is a must to count with a distributed generation normative and operative regime, or otherwise to work on a logistic profile that matches supply and (industrial and household) demand for energy, also considering electric generation as well as preferrably cogeneration schemes. Normatively, Argentina is already on its way to such a system. The second condition corresponds with deeper planning policies, on a longer horizon. Although URE development in recent years is dynamic, dendroenergetic development projects in particular are below the identified potential. Starting from INTA-FAO-Probiomasa consultancy (to be published in 2020) as our main antecedent, this work shows Argentina’s regions with the greatest dendroenergetic potential, the incentives that are currently in force, and what economic conditions might be necessary to achieve dendroenergetic capacity growth. Our research includes the economic modelling of a dendroenergy prototype project located in a selected forest basin in the North of the country.

The Argentine tobacco sector is one of the main regional economies of our country, covering the Northeast and Northwest areas, with well differentiated productive profiles. Primary production has as a central destination the export of raw tobacco for the production of blends by the main international companies. However, the local market presents a public intervention in the formation of prices paid to the producer, through the Special Tobacco Fund (FET in Spanish). In this context, this study's main objective is to analyze the mechanism of price transmission between the international and the domestic tobacco leaf market, determining the degree of integration between them. Simultaneously, it is investigated whether there are substantial differences in the transmission of prices between the production regions. Finally, it is analyzed if the mechanism of transmission towards local prices is symmetric or asymmetric in the face of increases or decreases in the international price. Monthly data are used corresponding to the price received by local producers and the FOB prices of exportation from Argentina and importation from USA, for the period between January 2007 and December 2017. The results obtained indicate that the Argentine tobacco market is integrated into the international market. In addition, the transmission of prices is asymmetric and with a greater speed of adjustment for negative deviations than positive ones, that is, the increases in the international price are transmitted faster than the decreases.

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a staple for over 800 million people worldwide. This starchy root crop is a major source of calories for roughly 40% of Africans and an excellent food security crop due to its tolerance for drought and marginal soils. However, a major challenge is the presence of cyanogenic glucosides (cyanogens), which break down into toxic cyanide. Dietary cyanide exposure is associated with conditions such as neurodevelopmental deficits, the neurological disease tropical ataxic neuropathy, and the paralytic disease konzo. These conditions may handicap individuals by hampering their ability to work, walk, and perform other tasks. Consequently, laborious post-harvest processing is required, reduces nutrient content in the resulting products, and releases cyanide in wastewater discharge from processing industries. Furthermore, postharvest physiological deterioration of cassava roots is cyanide-dependent. The genes CYP79D1 and CYP79D2 catalyze the synthesis of cassava’s principal cyanogens. We have established a platform at UC Berkeley’s Innovative Genomics Institute for cassava tissue culture, transformation, and CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing. This precision breeding method avoids time-consuming conventional breeding and preserves the complement of preferred traits. We show that biallelic knockout of both CYP79D genes in two cassava cultivars reduces cyanogen levels. We are applying this gene editing method to farmer-preferred cassava varieties, and pioneering non-transgenic gene editing methods that are expected to obviate GMO concerns and drawn-out regulatory hurdles. We expect to obtain early qualitative, quantitative and economic assessments of the impacts of the edited varieties on health, labor requirement, shelf life and water quality.

The essence of the bioeconomy lies in the transition from a fossil-based to a bio-based economy, using resources that are renewable, more available and less harmful to the environment (Kircher, 2019; Mentaberry et al., 2019; Trigo, 2011). Few studies have been made in the socio-economic field to determine how this transition will take place, in terms of value chain transformation and business model sustainability (Bracco et. Al, 2019, Hausknost et al., 2017). Previous works have been oriented towards identifying different types of business models in the bioeconomy (Bisang and Trigo, 2017), or have focused on the development of methodologies to identify opportunities in the field and how to carry new businesses in relation to them (IICA, 2019).

Exchange rate policies can have important implications on incentives for export agriculture. However, their effects are often not well understood. We study the issue of foreign exchange controls and pricing in the value chain for Ethiopia’s coffee – its most important export crop. Relying on unique pricing and cost data, we find that coffee exporters are willing to incur losses during exporting by offering high prices for coffee locally in order to access scarce foreign exchange. The losses in export markets are then more than recovered in importing, indicating rents – import parity prices are significantly lower than the prices charged for imported goods, so that profits on imports are much higher than the losses incurred in exporting. We further show that the high coffee wholesale prices are transmitted to farmers, so that they benefit from the rents downstream. These results suggest that a better exchange rate alignment to reduce the overvaluation of the local currency in this case would have a lower impact on export crop producer prices than typically is anticipated.

Venture capital (VC) is the most suitable form of financing firms as it enhances the innovation process through endorsement and networks. This study attempts to understand and explain the performance dynamics of VC backed firms around the first VC investment and IPO. Moreover, this paper provides the impact of venture capital on the performance of firms. We merged VentureIntelligence’s CFS and PEVC databases to create a comprehensive dataset for identifying venture capital-funded companies. Matching and difference-in-difference methods were used for matching the firms. Our econometric analysis was supplemented by fixed-effects models to get the treatment effect on the performance of the firm due to VC participation. The study finds that VC financing is an effective channel to promote the performance of the firm in general and startups in particular.

Due to poor performance of Nile tilapia seed from hatcheries around the country, a selective breeding programme for the species for fast growth based on the native wild stocks was developed. Wild strains from lakes – Albert, Edward, Kyoga and Victoria were bred and pure lines were raised on-station. These pure lines together with one currently farmed strain were then tested for growth rate performance on-station. The parameters considered during this study were weight gain, Feed Conversion Ratio, average daily weight gain and specific growth rate. The test animals were raised in happas of 2x2x2m, placed in earthen pond that was fertilized with chicken manure. The animals were given supplementary feeding at rates of 10%, 8% and 5% body weight for months 1, 2, 3-4 respectively. Biometric measurements of total length and total weight for all stocked fish were taken at the beginning and end of the study with monthly sampling of 20 fish per month. Growth performance of the different strains was Albert – 1.12g/day, Edward – 1.40g/day, Kyoga – 0.89g/day, Victoria – 2.30g/day and Farmed strain – 0.52g/day. The findings showed significant differences between growth performance of the different wild strains and the currently farmed strain. The currently farmed strain dismal performance was most probably due to inbreeding. The implications are that there may be genetic variation within the different native wild strains that can be exploited through selective breeding to improve growth performance of farmed tilapia in the country.

Using panel data of the China Household Financial Survey (CHFS) in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017, the digital inclusive finance (DIF) index provided by Peking University as well as provincial data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, this study investigates the effects of digital inclusive finance on income and income disparity within rural and urban China as well as the effects on rural-urban income inequality. The results show that DIF improved household income and the impact was stronger for rural households compared with urban households, especially those rural households with low social capital. The DIF effect was also stronger for households with higher education levels for both rural and urban households. Among different household income sources, DIF had positive and statistically significant effects on income from business, farming, and wage earnings. Furthermore, DIF was found to increase income disparity for both rural households and urban households, but it reduced the rural-urban income inequality and overall (national) income disparity. The findings of DIF effects on the rural-urban income inequality and income inequality within rural and urban China uncover the role of DIF on income distribution, providing empirical evidences for potential policy interventions to improve income equity.

Nigeria remains one of the top twenty countries with the burden of malnutrition in the world, consuming mainly food high in calories, while that of essential micronutrients and vitamins are below the recommended level. In lieu of this, bio-fortification was introduced into cassava in order to enhance its nutritional status. To achieve nutritional security goal, examining households’ awareness and potential demand for the bio-fortified cassava products is imperative. The study was carried out in South-west, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted in selecting 135 respondents.

This paper describes a framework to support innovation-based regional economic development, which is being tested in two Canadian non-metropolitan regions. I focus on non-metropolitan communities (i.e. rural). Despite their continuing importance to the Canadian economy, these regions carry a sense of being “left behind” by government innovation policies usually touting the strengths of urban centres. The framework is designed to help stakeholders in rural areas co-generate innovation strategies, and test their potential to rejuvenate/diversify the local economies. In contrast to urban regions, non-metro regions face a series of limitations that make it difficult to emulate urban regions’ growth through technology sectors, and which make the regeneration of traditional industries (e.g. agriculture, forestry, traditional manufacturing) difficult. They do not have the same tight knit concentrations of firms and knowledge creating stakeholders as urban regions. They tend to have lower amounts of capital, and fewer experienced entrepreneurs. The framework described here would lead to strategies that draw upon the knowledge strengths, R&D and networks of local post-secondary institutions and any large private sector firms, and the wealth of tacit knowledge of local actors that may not engage in formal R&D. These strategies would be aimed at finding new innovations in already existing sectors, as well as create new niche sectors. Drawing on participatory methods for institution-building and change to develop innovation, as well as foresight techniques to develop innovation strategies, this framework goes beyond previous approaches to innovation strategies such as Smart Specialization, or Triple Helix models.

The success of terrestrial carbon sequestration projects for rural development in sub-Saharan Africa lies in the (i) involvement of local populations in the selection of woody species and (ii) information about the potential of these species to store carbon. Although the latter is a key prerequisite, there is very little information available. To help fill this gap, the present study was undertaken in four pilot villages in Burkina Faso. The objective was to determine carbon storage potential for top-priority woody species preferred by local smallholders. We used (i) participatory rural appraisal consisting of group discussions and key informant interviews to identify priority species and functions, and (ii) landscape assessment of carbon stocks in the preferred woody species. Results revealed 79 priority tree species grouped into six functions, of which medicine, food, and income emerge as the most important ones for the communities. For these functions, smallholders overwhelmingly listed Vitellaria paradoxa and Parkia biglobosa, among the most important tree species. Among the preferred woody species in Cassou and Kou, the highest quantity of carbon was stored by V. paradoxa and the lowest by Grewia bicolor (5±1.2 kg C ha⁻¹). The potential carbon stored by the preferred tree communities was estimated at 587.9 Mg C ha⁻¹ (95% CI: 456.7; 719.1 Mg C ha⁻¹) in Kou and256.8 Mg C ha⁻¹ (95% CI: 67.6; 324.4 Mg C ha⁻¹) in Cassou. The study showed that the species that farmers preferred most stored more carbon than species that were less preferred.

The success of an innovation-led bioeconomy depends on whether the necessary knowledge and skills of human capital can be brought together in a firm, industry, or a region. The literature provides strong evidence of positive impacts of networks, clusters, and skilled labor on firms’ innovation and economic performance. It argues that regional knowledge transfer and close cooperation benefit not only incumbent enterprises, but increases entrepreneurship and survival chances of young businesses. The literature is, however, rather weak when it comes to demonstrating how innovating capacity of start-up and spinoff firms, which are politically viewed as important innovation drivers in the bioeconomy, is influenced by regional networks. The paper seeks to empirically contribute to this literature by exposing particularities of biotech start-ups in their search for innovative employees. A qualitative survey was conducted among the BioEconomy Cluster Central Germany, one the leading R&D hubs coordinated by the German Ministry of Education and Research. The results suggest that unlike larger enterprises and research organizations, start-ups tend to recruit high-skill specialists regionally or even locally, relying more on academic than industry networks. For firms facing higher risks of brain and know-how drain and not able to pay industry-level wages, personnel’s identification with the region and firm (that is, social and cognitive proximity) seems critical for their odds of survival and growth. This need for qualified loyal employees is reported to be a strong motivation for joining a regional cluster. These findings inform network-related cluster policies and explain some regional differences in start-ups dynamics.

The current linear model, characterized by extract – produce – use – dump resource flow, is long recognized to be virtually unsustainable. In Africa, trends in demographic and economic growth are putting the model in an even more precarious state. Further, African cities are already facing severe challenges in managing the substantial waste generation by households, commercial and industrial establishments. Circular economy has recently drawn the attention of the academia, industry and policy as a promising alternative to the current wasteful linear model. While it has gained much traction in the manufacturing sector, it has not been a dominant player in the agricultural sector because of the challenge of keeping the value of biomass cascading. In the context of agriculture, transition towards a circular economy implies that use of upstream inputs is minimized and downstream by-products are circulated based on the cascading principle. It also implies rethinking the focus of current agricultural research. This study explores the portfolio of innovations that hold greater potential for valorization and inclusive value chain development in Africa using a case study of IITA’s bioeconomy research in Benin, DRC, Nigeria, and Rwanda. In particular, the study will take stock of the current state of bioeconomy research at IITA and assess the potential environmental, economic and social contributions of the institute’s bioeconomy research and identify policies, innovations and business models needed for transition into circular bioeconomy in Africa.

Although the economy of Nigeria is driven by the oil sector, Agro-forestry plays a significant role in the GDP of the Nation. The agriculture and forestry sector of Nigeria generates a lot of wastes which are valuable biomass feedstock for second-generation biofuels and chemicals. The availability of diverse feedstock makes Nigeria suitable for setting up bio-refineries. However, factors such as inadequate technology, infrastructure, weak land governance and policy, as well as neglect by researchers are militating against the establishment of bio-refineries in Nigeria. Nigeria is in the lead when it comes to baobab production in West Africa. Research from other countries has revealed some of the opportunities in Baobab Fruits Shell (BFS) processing to include: biochar production, carbon activation for water purification, production of phenolic compound. Cross sectional survey was conducted on the use of Baobab among Hausa-Fulani households in North Western Nigeria. A total of 240 households were randomly selected across Jigawa and Kano States. The result shows that the leaves of the tree is considered most important among the respondents as it serves as a daily soup for the Hausa Fulani households, the pulp of the fruit was ranked second which was closely followed by its bark. However it is sadden to note that the baobab fruit shell is considered as a waste. Looking forward, effort should be geared towards research, investment technologies and policies to aid utilization of BFS to feed bio-refineries in Nigeria. This would offer employment and income generating opportunities for Nigeria.

Nigerian agriculture is characterized by low productivity. This study examines impact of technology adoption on land productivity and households’ welfare among cassava farmers in two agro-ecological zones of Southwest, Nigeria. Multistage sampling procedure was employed in the selection of respondents (adopters and non-adopters) from Ogun state (derived savannah) and Ondo state (rainforest). Endogenous switching regression model was employed in the data analysis. Output per hectare and household per capita consumption expenditure were used as indicators of land productivity and welfare respectively. The results of the probit regression model showed that education, membership of farmers’ group and credit were positive and statistically significant in determining adoption. The results of the endogenous switching model showed positive and significant impact of technology adoption on land productivity and welfare of farming households. Factors influencing productivity and welfare differ in the two regimes of households. Age had negative coefficient but significant in explaining variations in land productivity among non-adopters while years of education, farmers group membership, information access and sex were positive and significant in explaining variations among adopters. Furthermore, information access and years of education were positive and significant in explaining variations in welfare in non-adoption regime while farmers’ group membership, farming experience and information access had significant influence on welfare among adopters. Average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) is 6.34tonnes/ha and ₦20, 480.81(56.89 USD) on land productivity and welfare respectively. The study concludes that improved technology is an effective tool in achieving sustainable development goal of ending poverty in all its forms.

Root and tuber crops constitute most important food crops in Africa and particularly for Malawi. Cassava is among major root and tuber crops and it is the second most important staple food crop in Malawi after maize, accounting for more than 30 percent of the country’s population. Currently, cassava occupies 40 percent of area under roots and tubers and 43 percent of total production of roots and tubers according to 2018/19 Ministry of Agriculture Production Estimates. The crop has traditionally been viewed as a food crop but is currently increasing its importance due to maize’s vulnerability to climate change impacts. Due to its drought-tolerant nature, cassava offers one of the adaptation strategies to the impacts of climate change. Besides, cassava is one of the versatile crops with potential contribution to bio-economy. Among others, cassava is used as a source of renewable energy such as cassava fuel briquettes and bio-gas. Despite its important role in the Malawian food value chain and potential contribution to the bio-economy, the cassava value chain is hampered by several challenges. These include limited innovations at such as limited access to quality planting materials and poor agronomic practices at production level, lack of standards for cassava-based products at policy/regulatory level and poor processing equipment emanating from trade and technological policies. This paper, therefore, explores the status and adoption of innovations, policies, regulations and investments in addressing the constraints in the cassava sub-sector and its implications for the upgrading and development of the cassava value chain in Malawi.

This study assessed the economic impact of climate change on cocoa and oil palm farming in Nigeria. It uses the Ricardian model. It is based on farm data generated from 36 States over the period of 1970 - 2015. The States covered were all the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. Annual crop net revenue is regressed on climate and other variables. The finding reveals unsteady climatic pattern with peak points across the period under review. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller test for unit root shows that net revenue was non stationary but became stationary after the first difference. All climate and other variables showed stationary at level. The results showed that increase in rainfall will increase the net revenue while increase in inflation will reduce the net revenue of crop farming. The coefficients of multiple determination (R2) for net revenue was 0.58. Results showed that climate change impacted net revenue of crop farming in Nigeria. It is recommended that adequate mitigation and adaptive measures like irrigation be put in place to reduce the effect of climate change in order to achieve an appreciable agricultural productivity.

La actividad trutícola constituye una fuente de alimentación sana y su producción mundial está en auge, Ecuador no es la excepción pues en el 2017 se produjeron 6000 toneladas de trucha arco iris (FAO, 2020), y actualmente existen más de 250 criaderos, desarrollados mayoritariamente por comunidades rurales que afianzan su subsistencia, empleo local y economía en esta actividad. El Centro de Investigaciones Acuícolas del Ecuador – CENIAC, es la principal entidad estatal que produce y suministra ovas y alevines de esta especie a piscicultores ecuatorianos. Esta intensificación productiva hace necesaria la provisión continua de semilla de buena calidad y de costos asequibles para los productores; por lo que este proyecto busca implementar el primer Programa de Mejora Genética (PMG) de trucha arco iris con enfoque a la Acuicultura de pequeña escala en Ecuador, para esto se analizó mediante microsatélites(SSR), la variabilidad y viabilidad genética de la población de reproductores y sus filiales en el CENIAC; se seleccionaron inter e intrafamiliarmente individuos de la primera filial y, actualmente se han determinado los protocolos de evaluación del ciclo reproductivo de los peces por ultrasonido para sincronizar los desoves de la segunda filial y establecer cruzamientos dirigidos. En conclusión, el PMG aunado al manejo reproductivo adecuado de las familias seleccionadas, permitirá fortalecer el progreso económico de las producciones rurales de trucha arco iris en Ecuador, aprovechando la adaptación de esta especie a los ecosistemas nacionales y evitando la introducción de más especies provenientes de otros países.

The production of sugarcane in Brazil grew both by advancing in area and in productivity. On the one hand, there are limits to the growth of production, on the other, biomass can be better used, using bagasse and straw for the production of second generation ethanol (2G) and other products, by a biorefinery. The development of a biorefinery faces the challenges posed by the spatial heterogeneity of the production and composition of biomass, the cost of coordinating the supply chain and the regulatory environment (Bartolini, 2017). Establishing this type of contract is a major agent problem (Laffont and Tirole, 1993). Contracts are necessary to reduce risks, transaction costs, quality of the raw material, regulations associated with demand (X. Du et al., 2017). The objective of the study was to evaluate the types of contracts prevailing in the supply of bagasse and straw for the production of 2G ethanol and energy. The case study was based on data from the Administrative Region of Campinas, a traditional area for the cultivation of sugarcane and the production of sugar and 1G ethanol. The methodology was developed for the simulation of a principal-agent model in order to optimize solutions for biomass supply contracts for 2G ethanol and energy (Bartolini, 2017; Viaggi et al., 2010). Preliminary results indicate that vertical integration prevails, in which the industry uses bagasse for 2G ethanol and energy production. Suppliers have the role of reducing the use of capital, but are resistant to joining the straw market.

El incremento de actividades agrícolas en la comuna San Pablo de Kantesdeya de la Nacionalidad Siekopai promueve cambios en las relaciones hombre – naturaleza y las formas de vida comunitaria. Teóricamente, los sistemas agrícolas en territorios de selva se presentan como un modelo que contribuye al desarrollo sostenible (DS) de la región. Sin embargo, existe poca información sobre el impacto de estas estrategias sobre socio-ecosistemas amazónicos. Este estudio pretende determinar un modelo conceptual que integre criterios teóricos tradicionales con la percepción de los habitantes, para evaluar la incidencia de varias actividades agrícolas en la comuna. A partir de herramientas participativas, la aplicación de entrevistas semiestructuradas, talleres con grupos focales y basados en los planes de vida de las nacionalidades indígenas de la amazonia ecuatoriana, se adaptó indicadores para su evaluación. La percepción comunitaria muestra que la palma aceitera es el principal desencadenante de conflictos sociales, ambientales, culturales y de gubernamentalidad. No obstante, los miembros productores establecen que el rédito monetario proveniente del cultivo es una alternativa para hacer frente a la pobreza y mejorar la calidad de vida de sus familias. En los aspectos culturales y ambientales, la comunidad determina que se han abandonado actividades productivas tradicionales y hay una baja influencia de la cosmovisión para la búsqueda de prácticas tendientes al DS, esto genera pérdida de bosques primarios y deterioro de ecosistemas. El desarrollo de modelos de bioeconomía sostenible en la comuna dependerá de una gestión participativa que promueva la integración del conocimiento ecológico tradicional y el aporte científico.

This study assesses the carbon footprint and the energy footprint of anhydrous corn ethanol, produced in small-scale distilleries (minidest) of farmers grouped in the Chamber of Grain Industrialists and Biofuel Producers in Origin (CIGBO), based in Cordoba, Argentina. The carbon footprint represents all greenhouse gases emitted, while the energy footprint comprises the total energy consumed in the production of ethanol.

A representative establishment was evaluated, which produces its own corn for the production of ethanol, and which uses the by-products (burlanda and vinasse) for beef production, in an adjoining feedlot. In this model the manure recovered from the feedlot, together with corn silo of own production, are used in a bio digester to generate electricity and heat, which allows to supply the needs of the minidest and to sell electricity to the grid. In turn, digestate, a byproduct of the biodigester, is used as a replacement for field

For many decades, Africa has been looking for ways of solving the problem of food security and this has formed an important item on African leaders’ agenda. Continuous increase in population density and the consequent pressures for land in many countries, Nigeria inclusive, have the tendency to worsening the arable land situation in the foreseeable future, if not addressed. For higher productivity, farmers need to increase the adoption of productivity-enhancing innovations like the Urea Deep Placement (UDP) technology designed to improve availability of nitrogen which is essential nutrient in rice production in Nigeria. Scanty information on the economics of the use of this technology informed this study. Based on data collected from three hundred UDP users and non-users, the study examined the profitability and productivity of rice farm in the presence of heterogeneity. Descriptive statistics, logistic regression and the Latent class production models were used for the study. The study concluded that farms that adopted UDP technology performed better. The technology is, however, labour intensive in the short run. Labour-saving technology needs to accompany the adoption to address the high labour use in the short run, and to make rice production attractive to the young people that forms the bulk of the labour force in Nigeria.

Lagoons and estuaries are vital ecosystems that have sustained human activities and marine life since earliest times. However, these ecosystems are still under threat of overfishing, pollution, habitat destruction, diseases, invasive species, and climate change. Protecting and restoring the diversity of estuarine fish resources such as tilapia will enhance their resilience towards current and future disturbances. We first identified the current environmental problems with their relevance to the aquatic salinization in Benin coastal areas. In an attempt to suggest conservation strategy, the phenotypic variability of 361 accessions of Sarotherodon melanotheron versus 356 accessions of Coptodon guineensis was assessed in relation with water salinity, and several interactions including fish species*river type, fish species*fish sex, and river type*fish sex interactions to determine factors that could impact the success of a potential conservation programme. Our findings indicate that the salinity observed in the sampled rivers is due, at proportions ranging from 0.13% to 46.78%, to the salinity of the deep Atlantic Ocean water column, suggesting a leading inland origin of the salinity of these rivers. Rivers salinity affected the phenotypic characteristics in Sarotherodon melanotheron compare to Coptodon guineensis. The fish species*river type and fish species*fish sex interactions had significant effects on phenotypic characteristics rather than river type*fish sex interaction suggesting that one factor of the model alters the effect of the other factor. The study also provides technical guidance for efficient conservation of these tilapia populations, and three conservation areas versus two conservation areas could be considered for Sarotherodon melanotheron and Coptodon guineensis respectively.

Problema La industria petrolera, producto de sus actividades, producción y refinación, genera una diversidad de desechos que deben ser manejados adecuadamente, para evitar daños al ambiente y la salud pública, se debe saber que un derrame de petróleo es un vertido de este hidrocarburo que se produce debido a un accidente o práctica inadecuada, como lo dicho anteriormente, que contamina el ambiente, de ello no escapa el recurso suelo como conjunto finito. Los ripios se consideran un desecho peligroso cuando están impregnados con fluidos de perforación de base aceitosa o con los propios hidrocarburos líquidos contenidos en las rocas atravesadas del yacimiento.

Justificación. Es prioritario delimitar que la degradación del ripio es elevada económicamente en la actualidad, lo cual genera gastos en la industria petrolera, razón por la cual se deben establecer técnicas o estrategias que mitiguen el impacto ambiental, generado por la contaminación de ripios.

We distilled the peer-review literature related to the application of new breeding technologies (NBTs) in agriculture, showing that China research institutions are the most prolific ones, outpacing even those published by USA public and private institutes. This prominence of Chinese institutes could only be showing that their researchers are more interested in publishing than any other of their counterparts around the world, particularly those from the USA, where the private sector would be focused on protecting their intellectual property and filling patents. Nevertheless, China’s global leadership is also confirmed by the patents filed in each country’s jurisdiction.In this paper we analyze both the peer review literature and the patent filing, to quantify and qualify the areas of interest to researchers in China, both in the published literature and patent filing,and compare it to the ones from the USA and other countries. We explore also potential consequences to developing countries, particularly those in the African continent. Although many times exaggerated, China has started to set their interest in the continent, with the focus of feeding their growing population and NBT’s can be a tool to achieve this goal. Although questions are raised about China’s capacity to license these NBT’s, giving their history with GMO’s, we argue that they might be in a more advanced position, given their leadership position in other technologies, like telecommunications. China is today a world leader in 5G technology, a critical technology that they are now licensing around the world.

Assessing global impacts of Bioeconomy requires comprehensive frameworks that take into account complex dynamics in land use, agricultural and energy markets, and biomass trade, among other factors. We propose the application of Computable General Equilibrium analysis to derive quantitative indicators on the sustainability of large-scale bio-based production, capturing spillover effects and Land Use Change. Specifically, we use an extended model that allows for increased land supply at the expense of natural ecosystems, based on spatially-explicit estimates of suitable land areas combined with regional land supply elasticities. Taking bioplastics as an example, we simulate a subsidy for increased crop-based plastic production in 5 leading regions and 180 scenarios in total, considering parameter variability. Differences in metrics across scenarios arise from each region’s crop mix and import shares for bioplastic production, as well as from the convertible land extension. Subsidizing bioplastic production increases CO2 emissions globally in most scenarios due to land and carbon leakage. Bioplastics from China and the European Union show the highest CO2 intensity per tonne (21,600 and 10,500 kg, respectively), while bioplastics from Thailand reduce CO2 by 60 kg·t-1 on average. The production subsidy only entails positive annual abatement costs in Thailand (up to US$2,700 per tonne) with average payback times of 26 years. Results show that subsidizing bioplastic production does not effectively mitigate climate change unless cost-competitive bioplastics based on alternative feedstock are readily available. The same metrics can be applied to other sectors to monitor long-term sustainability of Bioeconomy by considering technological change and economic growth.

Energy crisis in Nigeria is a major concern; crippling the economy. Albeit its abundance, use of fossil fuel is not a viable solution considering air pollution. Renewable energy technology like solar-powered hub for homes is gaining prominence and is positioned to address energy deficit. We assessed impact of the technology adoption on wellbeing of rural farming households in Nigeria and also explored drivers of its diffusion. Designing a Quasi-experiment, we randomly selected 73 subscribers into the treatment group and 219 non-electrified households into the control group. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, t-test, propensity score matching, and probit regression. We found its adoption increased the wellbeing of adopter households over non-adopters(p<0.05), confirming the hypothesis that access to stand-alone solar-powered energy by off-grid rural households increased their personal wellbeing. The probit regression result revealed that household income, remittance income, school-aged children in household, flexibility in payment, subsidy scheme, peer effect and pursuit of life’s ease increased the probability of its adoption whereas increase in age, proximity to town and access to fossil fuels decreased the probability of adoption(p<0.05). Adopting the technology widely will help in assiduously curtailing CO2 emission. We recommended government subsidy on the technology. Diffusion may be aided by peer effect hence recommendation to influence key individuals to adopt. Distributors and marketers of this technology should extend their reach to hinterlands where people gain increased awareness on its availability and accessibility. This technology is relevant in nipping energy crisis in Nigeria in a cleaner, greener and more sustainable manner.

The transition towards bioeconomy requires going through different phases, including the development of knowledge and technical inventions. The literature on bioeconomy often devotes much attention to innovation, sustainable business and their roles in transition to bioeconomy. However, the interdependences between the business models and their business environments are not sufficiently well understood as to avoid misalignments which obstruct the transition. Due to ongoing structural adjustments, bioeconomy enterprises in rural areas are particularly affected by mismatches with their environment. We develop a new and comprehensive analytical framework to understand how business environments influence the roll-out of businesses in the bioeconomy. The framework covers the following subarenas identified from the analysis of over 80 business cases: Legislation and regulation, technology and knowledge, consumer development, market organization, funding, training and education. The results show that businesses in the bioeconomy, unlike the conventional businesses, have to deal with much more fragmented environments and constraining legislative issues, infant and non-adapted technology and knowledge, and unclear values and perceptions of consumers. Due to these, the businesses have to engage in new forms of interaction with various stakeholders, and develop specific strategies, steering structures

The study examined the determinants of households’ food security in Akure South Local Government, Ondo State, Nigeria. The study used a multi-stage sampling procedure to select eighty respondents with the aid of structured questionnaire. Data were collected randomly from four communities and analyzed using a combination of descriptive statistics, food security index and probit regression analysis. The results revealed that food secure households had an average daily per capita calorie consumption of 3854.46Kcal while the households that were food insecure had an average daily per capita calorie consumption of 1564.3Kcal. The results of probit regression revealed that, household size, level of education, household head’s income and number of income earners were important determinants of food security among households. Based on the findings of the study, it was therefore recommended that households should diversify their sources of income and register with cooperative societies which may be necessary for them to access funds and also there should be limit in population size through integrated health and education services.

The threat to agriculture and food security, occasioned by climate change, has reached alarming stage. As farmers are hit by these unprecedented climatic induced problems, they are constantly involved in management practices to ensure continuous production of crops and livestock. This paper based on primary data collected as part of a PhD dissertation in the Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, presents an analysis of Female Farm Households Management Practices to Extreme Weather Event in Southeast, Nigeria to extreme weather events in Southeast Nigeria. Multistage sampling procedure was used in the selection female farmers. It used purposive and random sampling techniques for the selection of 240 female farm households that constituted the respondents. Six natural disasters notably flood; erosion, water logging, crop failure, pest attacks and disease outbreak were listed out. It is very clear that these farmers were highly exposed to the incidence of these natural disasters. Land and soil management practices, water management practices, crop and livestock practices and also institutional measures which include assistance they get from NEMA/SEMA and on-going insurance coverage were used by these female farm household to cushion the effects of these climatic induced disaster on them. Therefore this study recommends that government agencies and partners saddled with the responsibility of combating climate change impacts should help female farm households implement or internalise more effective and sustainable adaptation practices especially in the area of technology, production practices because they are poor resource base and their choices are limited in terms of adaptation.

This research examined the technical, allocative and economic efficiencies (TE, AE, and EE) of the innovative behaviours of adopters and non-adopters of bio-fortified rice farming in Nigeria. The specific objectives were to: compare the output and inputs levels of adopters and non-adopters of the bio-fortified rice farming, measure their TE, AE, and EE, examine the determinants of TE, AE, and EE of the bio-fortified rice production, identify factors that influence farmers innovative behaviour towards the bio-fortified rice, and identify constraints associated with the bio-fortified rice production. Data were collected from a sample of 2,700 rice farmers. Descriptive statistics, Stochastic Frontier Production and Cost Functions, Tobit regression and Logistic regression were used. The result shows that adopters of bio-fortified rice production technologies obtained higher average yield than the non-adopters. The mean TE, AE and EE were 69.14%, 66.13%, 37.62% and 67.62%, 30.30%, 22.40%, respectively, for adopters and non-adopters. Households’ size, education, extension contact, access to credit and system of land ownership are significant determinants of efficiency. Farm income, access to information, access to credit, education, household size and membership of cooperatives influenced farmers’ adoption behaviours. Inaccessibility to cheap inputs, water, and conflict with grazing nomads were identified as the major problems. This study concludes that there were significant differences in their levels of TE, AE, and EE, and access to information, literacy level and membership of cooperative societies influenced the adoption of bio-fortified rice innovation.

The contribution of biotechnology to the productivity of crops has been heavily debated among scientists as well as other societal groups. Several studies point out the advantages of adopting biotechnology include the increase in crop productivity, the environmental benefits generated, and the contribution to reducing poverty and improving nutrition. Others emphasize the unknown risk related to the biotechnology and argue that other strategies based on agro-ecological concepts can also reach what biotechnology targets, but are more environmental friendly and do not expose society to the potential risks. Both views have in common claiming that the agricultural sector would do better. The differences in strategies and policies chosen by the United States and the European Union provide a natural experiment for testing whether the use of modern biotechnology made a difference. Based on the data of farm income per owner operator for 15 member states in the European Union and 49 states in the United States, we adopt fixed effects panel data model and difference-in-differences methodology to assess the impact of adopting biotechnology considering how China effect contributes to the change of income growth. The results show that the treatment effect is significantly different between the European Union and the United States, before and after adopting biotechnology, indicating a significant impact on income growth. Both with and without the China effect, the treatment is significantly larger in the United States; however, with China effect, the treatment effect of adopting biotechnology in the United States decreases by around 12.5%.

According to USDA, Brazil is third largest producer of corn in the world. With a large share of production being from agricultural frontier – far from main country’s ports –, the local price of corn is significantly lower than international market price. In these regions, along the supply of cheap corn, ethanol fuel – which in Brazil is directly used by automobiles – has been historically more expensive than in major sugar cane regions. This combination has become a major driver for the growth of corn ethanol production in center-west region specially at prior existing sugar cane mills which have been converted in “flex” ones. Based on primary data, this study presents the cost structure of producing ethanol in two flex mills in center-west region during the 2018/19 harvest and compare the results with existing values for ethanol from sugar cane only. The results suggest that, although demanding 2.5 times more land, producing ethanol from corn may be cheaper than from sugar cane (R$ 1.24/L against R$1.49/L) due to a higher industrial yield and lower input price. Additionally, flex mills generate byproducts that can be sold at better prices than electricity from sugar cane mills and have better condition of selling ethanol when prices are seasonally higher, generating better financial results. Nevertheless, these financial results are showed to be very dependent upon prices of both corn and ethanol.

Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD) is an invasive pest that has resulted in large management costs for berry growers in the U.S. In this study, we analyze SWD pest management under uncertainty by conducting a dynamic bioeconomic analysis of lowbush blueberry production using a unique dataset of 92 lowbush blueberry farms in Maine. We first construct a numerical bioeconomic model as a finite-horizon dynamic programming problem to solve for the dynamically optimal management strategy, and to compare the predicted optimal decisions with actual decisions made by growers. Second, we build upon our numerical bioeconomic model to develop a dynamic structural econometric model that accounts for the unobservable factors that arise when growers make actual choices in order to estimate the structural parameters. We then use our dynamic models to simulate the effects of counterfactual scenarios on grower decisions and analyze incentives for growers to adopt sustainable management strategies. For Maine lowbush blueberry growers, a sustainable pest management alternative is to harvest earlier to avoid the late season high pest pressure. Our preliminary results suggest that early harvesting can be part of an optimal management strategy when SWD population is high, and for weeks with a low SWD population, spraying insecticide is also not optimal in most cases. The average deadweight loss, which arises from differences between growers’ actual pest management strategy and the optimal pest management strategy, is $137 per acre. The results from this study have important implications for improving SWD pest management strategies and therefore grower welfare and sustainability.

The bioeconomy is a particular and different way of understanding the economy, being part of the new knowledge economies in addition to the circular and the blue economy; and considering aspects that were not previously taken into account and incorporating them as new paradigms. Beyond the widely used concept of "meeting the needs", it is now taken into account what are the real needs and that do not imply or damage or deteriorate the environment and society in your daily life collaborating with the productive ecosystem of regeneration and responsible use of the resources. Our territory, in this case Chaco, Argentina, is an opportunity for bioeconomic development and that is why I base my doctoral thesis in the process of elaboration, which is why I consider it essential to analyze all the short and medium term possibilities of practical application of the tools of the bioeconomy As this region is a land of low productive development based on incomplete primary production with productive matrices that have been modified over time and in turn little incentive, everything remains to be done and that is an opportunity in itself. The value chains are not yet at the same time that the industrial processes are only incipient, as well as the generation of basic services and technologies. The work to develop this territory from the clustering and basing productivity on bioeconomic processes is an objective to develop for the coming years.

Diffusion of new technologies in competitive markets is often thought to be too slow, chiefly due to frictions. In this paper, in contrast, I study a phenomenon of hastened technology adoption facilitated by a negative spatial externality imposed by adopters on non-adopters. Focusing on new herbicide-tolerant seeds for soybean and cotton, I show that adoption by U.S. farmers was partly caused by wind carrying the herbicide across plots. I reconstruct the diffusion in space of the new seed across the United States, and leverage spatial variation in wind patterns to separate out adoption caused by the externality from adoption caused by other, typically isotropic, drivers of adoption. I estimate that being in the same wind corridor as an adopter increased the probability of adopting the new seed by about 29%, whereas being crosswind from an adopter did not affect the probability of adoption. The externality also led to defensive adaptation: cropland was converted to crops able to withstand the herbicide, suggesting a form of protective land-use change to prevent damage. Exposition to adopters indeed led to a net conversion to soybean and cotton of over 1,800 hectares by county. Finally, I quantify broader consequences of the widespread adoption of the technology, including its effect on yields; they remained overall practically unchanged, despite increased crop failure in counties exposed to adopters. The rapid diffusion of this new technology and the consequences highlighted in this paper call for the careful consideration of policies to address such inventions and of their accompanying side-effects.

Intensive large scale beekeeping is a trend in Latin America. In response to the growing demand for food, honey bees (Apis mellifera), which can be managed as a form of husbandry, play a fundamental role in productivity of a large number of crops through pollination services. However, there is only limited recognition of its importance for food security, natural ecosystems and local economies. The lack of or poor implementation of public policies, limit the sector in its development. Limited knowledge transfer from the academy to the productive base and conflicts of interest between farmers and beekeepers increase the health risks for bee populations and safety of their production. In order to define the main causes of health loss in bee populations, the Bee Health 2020 LatAm project surveys through field monitoring bee health in geographical regions of Chile, Colombia, Argentina and Costa Rica. The project covers more than 239 beekeepers, 213 apiaries and 1334 beehives. The results help to propose tools linked to public policies to improve the local realities. With novel approaches, the territorial planning inherent to a health management and preventive medicine is presented as a sustainable solution towards bioeonomy. This vision allows the development of, bioeconomy strategies since it allows for proper environmental friendly beekeeping management, contributing to the sustainable development of the sector. The results allow the definition of specific training provided to the sector and the formulation of a framework for public policies.

When water scarcity restricts agricultural production, expanding water resources is only one option for public resources; public investments in research to raise productivity can also release constraints on growth. In this paper we construct a model of optimal resource allocation with both public and private inputs in production – the public sector invests in irrigation infrastructure and research to supply water and technology, respectively, while the private sector supplies non-land inputs. The model is used to derive shadow values for water that suggest “crop per drop” valuations are likely to significantly overstate the marginal value of water in agriculture. We apply our model to analyze sources of growth in Egyptian agriculture, which is almost entirely dependent on publicly-supplied irrigation, over 1961-2016. We construct two indexes of total productivity: total factor productivity treats resources from a producer perspective, where water is free and resource rents accrue to land. Total resource productivity takes a social perspective, where government subsidies for irrigation are included as a cost of production, and resource rents are assigned to water withdrawals for agriculture. Our results find that technological innovations and efficiency gains have greatly improved total productivity in Egyptian agriculture. Productivity growth accelerated following the transition from a socialist to a market-based economy. Including social costs of irrigation provision reduces the implied rate of total productivity growth somewhat. Nonetheless, the rise in total resource productivity has significantly increased the unit value of water in Egyptian agriculture.

Chronic undernutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is an indication that the Malthusian footrace between food availability and population remains relevant today. Prospects for technology to grow the global bioeconomy will play a key role in alleviating food insecurity. We develop a model of technology, food security and international trade in which there are three distinct channels for technology to benefit food security. The first is via domestic R&D investment – a long run path to enhance productivity. An alternative is to import technologies from other countries where significant knowledge capital has already been established. The third role for technology is that of ‘virtual technology trade’, i.e., taking advantage the benefits of technological investments undertaken elsewhere through cheaper imported food. To assess the relative contribution of each channel to food security in SSA, we employ a partial equilibrium, quantitative trade model, augmented by a temporal relationship between R&D investments, knowledge capital and agricultural productivity. We find that in the past domestic R&D has been the primary driver of lowering food prices, but looking forward, technology ‘spill-ins’ from emerging economies could rival in importance SSA’s own R&D investments. However, through 2050, virtual technology trade will likley be the most important vehicle for reducing undernutrition in Africa. This will be conditioned on the degree of integration of africa into global markets and the willingness of wealthier countries to use their own productivity gains to export food rather than withdraw resources from agriculture in favor of the environment.

We conduct a meta-analysis of studies on consumers’ preference for GM foods to offer policy recommendations for African countries intending on incorporating GM into their agricultural value chains. Our analysis deviates from previous meta-analyses by examining how the conditional interaction between the prevailing GM regulatory approval and the level of Human Development Index (HDI) in each country of study influences the level of acceptability for GM foods. Findings reveal that when considered independently, the HDI index was found to be insignificant and regulatory approval yielded a negative relationship with preference. However, using the interaction term, a higher HDI conditional on a positive approval status is associated with higher consumer preference. This suggests that consumer response to GM food is related to the level of development in a country, and could be informed by how engaged consumers are in decision making regarding GM regulation. Subsequently, it calls for developing countries who are considering developing a GM product to base the decision on regulatory approval on developing the components of the HDI and collective engagement with prospective consumers.

This study examines the factors influencing adoption of improved seeds and other modern agricultural production technologies among African Development Bank-Community Based Agriculture and Rural Development Programme (AfDB-CBARDP) beneficiaries in Nigeria.. The data collected using multi stage sampling technique from 1020 farmers selected were analysed using the logit regression model. Results of the maximum likelihood estimates between income and improved seeds adoption was positive and statistically significant. Farming experience was also positively related to adoption of the use of improved seeds and statistically significant at 1% level. The study also reveals that adoption of improved seeds and other technologies increases with credit availability. Farm size on the other hand was negatively related to adoption of fertilizer technology but positively related to improved seeds used, post-harvest and livestock improvement technologies at 1% significant level. Correspondingly, the coefficients for improved seed and livestock technologies were positively related to the farmer’s age at 5% significant level. The findings further revealed that profitability of the enterprise is the major reason for improved seeds and other technologies adoption (3.7*). Increased yield was the most important reasons for improved seeds and other technologies adoption with weighted mean scores of 3.3*. Varietal attributes related to early maturity was found to be important motive of improved seeds adoption (2.7*). Inaccessibility and high cost of production were the main reasons for non-adoption (*Reason ≥2.5). Availability of improved seeds and other modern agricultural production technologies should always be consider by the relevant stakeholders when scaling up new innovation practices.

Evaluations of agricultural technologies rarely consider how adoption may alter the labor allocation of different household members. We examine intrahousehold decision- making dynamics that shape smallholder agricultural households' decision to hire in mechanical rice transplanting (MRT), a technology that reduces demand for labor. To study the adoption decision, we employ an experimental approach to estimating the willingness-to-pay for MRT services, both at the level of individual men and women within the same households, as well as at the overall household level. We find that women value MRT more than men, but this difference in valuation is not driven by differences in their individual characteristics, but primarily by differences in preferences. Although women value MRT more than men, they have less influence over the ultimate technology adoption decision. In households with women working as outside hired laborers, the intrahousehold differences in MRT valuation disappear, suggesting that women value MRT as a means of reallocating on-farm labor to other unpaid family work. Labor-saving mechanization, such as MRT, may have important implications for rural labor markets and on the (gendered) division of labor within agricultural households.

The disconnect between the public and agricultural production is a growing concern for the Canadian agriculture industry. A lack of knowledge regarding food production can lead to distrust in the agri-food industry and in the safe, nutritious food grown on Canadian farms. The increasing availability of misleading information about agricultural production only heightens these concerns. To assess consumers’ level of knowledge and familiarity with agricultural production, we surveyed 700 Canadians about terms and topics including animal and crop production, crop protection, plant breeding technologies, and organic production. Survey results reveal a lack of basic knowledge in most topics. Participants appear to be most familiar with and knowledgeable of animal production, while the greatest knowledge deficits were seen in the topics of crop protection, organic production, and plant breeding technologies. Based on these results, we recommend the industry focus awareness efforts on these topics. Although consumers indicate they are familiar with many agricultural topics, results reveal that they are not necessarily knowledgeable on these subjects. This trend indicates that consumers are often unaware of their knowledge deficiency. To increase consumer interest and decrease information search costs, the industry should communicate in easily accessed formats and familiar language. Targeting younger consumers who have increasing political and social influence and large social media networks could help to reach a broad audience of Canadians.

One-third of the rice area in India is affected by droughts, mostly moderate droughts; its frequency has increased in recent years (Birthal et al. 2015). Developing countries, like India, are more vulnerable to climate change (CC) because of heavy dependence on the agricultural sector and lack of technical and financial resources to cope up with them. This study investigates the impact of drought on crop yields and net returns. Additionally, the study assesses how farmers optimize their resources to cope with droughts using a unique Indian farmer plot-level dynamic panel (2005-06 to 2013-14). This study contributes to the literature in three ways. First, it is the first study to assess the impact of droughts with a new higher resolution data set (farmer plot-level panel data). Second, we use three years rolling panel of farmers plot-level data on area and production of significant crops along with other variables (labor use, machine use, seed cost, irrigation, and additional input costs) for 2005-06 to 2013-14. Third, unlike other studies, we estimate both crop and economic losses due to droughts and measures farmer's response to droughts (irrigation, fertilizer, and capital assets). Preliminary results show that drought has a negatively significant effect on crop yields and net returns for both rice and wheat. However, the impact of the drought is larger on net returns than on yields. In the case of rice, drought affects yield adversely by 2.5% in the case of low-intensity drought and about 9 % in the case of moderate drought.

The development of the bioeconomy is driven by innovation for alternative uses of biomass. The sustainability of using different forms of biomass for conversion into products is widely debated. We propose to use the genuine investment framework for assessing the sustainability of the bioeconomy. We first introduce the concept based on the seminal paper by Arrow et al (2012) and advance their model by including uncertainty and irreversibility explicitly and link the model with the EU bioeconomy strategy and discuss the implications for measuring and monitoring the development of the EU Bioeconomy.

This paper measures the share of bioeconomy at national income for 22 countries in Europe from 2000 to 2020. There is a lack of a unifying model for the measurement of bioeconomy in the existing literature. The paper proposes an extended approach of Heijman (2016) which measures the shares of bioeconomy by breaking down the gross domestic product (GDP) into two main sectors which are the sectors of agriculture, forestry, fishery, aquaculture and veterinary services (S1), and the rest of the economy (S2). In our approach, bioeconomy is not S1 but also the value added generated by the output flow from S1 to S2, and part of the value added of the output flow from S2 to S1. For the data analysis, input-output tables are taken from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data base with the time span 2000-2010. These data have been merged and iterative proportional fitting procedure (RAS ) has been employed to extend the time span to 2020. The paper uses autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) to estimate the short-run and long-run relation between bioeconomy and the rest of the economy for 22 EU member states. We find a statistically significant long-run relation between bioeconomy and the rest of the economy for most of the countries. The results suggest that investing in the bieconomy results in positive returns in both short-run and long-run.

We examine in our study the effect on food security from storing more of a harvested staple crop for own consumption. The analysis is based on survey data from more than 900 households in Guatemala that harvested improved beans in 2017. Households were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups, with the treatment group receiving biofortified beans and nutrition information about those beans. We address the endogeneity problem of storage decision by using the random treatment assignment as an instrumental variable. A list of food security questions were asked to the main person who prepared food in the household. These questions on food insecurity range in severity from worrying about food running out to not eating for the whole day due to a lack of resources. Seven of those questions are split into two parts: one referring to adults and the other referring to children below 18 years old. The outcome variable consists of three categories and captures the change in food security status: improved, no change, or worsened. The categorization is based on the answers to the food security questions in two rounds of survey conducted before the treatment and two years after the treatment, respectively. Results show that storing more beans for consumption does not have a statistically significant effect on the food security of adults. However, the practice helps to alleviate the problem of children below 18 years old having to skip at least a meal in the past three months due to a lack of resources.

Marine Biodiversity conservation is an essential component of human development and closely linked to ending extreme poverty, increasing food security, improving public health, managing the impacts of climate change and building resilience to the Bio-economy and Circular Economy for the recurrent crises. By promoting development that benefits both nature and people, Marine (aqua) biodiversity conservation activities can strengthen development impact and the capacity of countries to manage their natural resources, improving their self-reliance. Addressing the impacts of climate change on Marine and Agrobiodiversity and feedbacks on climate requires integrative knowledge and new ways of thinking. Necessary research-based and science-based approaches should not only identify challenges but also lead to the actions and solutions that are needed to better preserve biodiversity, regulate climate and reinforce the resilience of socio-ecological systems as nature-based researches too. Such multiply researches could greatly contribute to the implementation of the postgraduate, fellowship and scientific approaches in the Marine Biodiversity Conservation. We found many co-existence factors between climate, acidification of the ocean, micro plastic, reduction of plankton, ecological processes and biological diversity offers important opportunities. Indeed, many studies have shown that actions nurturing diverse living organisms and their interactions and making ecosystem processes more resilient may be among the lowest cost, least-regret and most rapidly-deployable ways of limiting global temperature rise to below.