Developing capabilities in the seed industry: which direction to follow?

ANABEL MARIN; LILIA STUBRIN; PATRICK VAN ZWANENBERG

Congreso; V Congreso de AEDA ?Nuevas y viejas restricciones al desarrollo. Contribuciones de la Economía Política para superarlas?; 2013

We examine the impacts that different technological approaches to seed innovation have had on the growth and productivity of soya production in Argentina since the 1990s, using data on registered plant varieties, agricultural performance, and interviews. Existing work highlights the central, transformative role that transgenic seeds have played in the Argentinean soy sector, but those analyses ignore the performance gains from non genetic engineering seed innovations, or misattribute them to genetic engineering. Our more disaggregated analysis suggests that conventional plant breeding has been the more significant seed innovation. Our results have pontential implications to how technological options should be considered in strategies for developing technological capabilities.