Currently, there are five common limitations for technology transfer in agriculture:
This section is concerned with institutional and technical limitations on the global system of agricultural research to develop and supply new technologies. Barriers to farm-level adoption are discussed in Section 11.4.1.
Problems of gene bank management
Thus far, the international system of plant genetic resource exchange and research
has succeeded at maintaining steady crop yield, while controlling yield variability.
There is growing concern that this may not be sustainable in the longer term
given current funding levels (United States Congress, Office of Technology Assessment,
1987; NRC, 1993; UN/FAO, 1997). Funding problems arise, in part because individual
nations do not capture the full gains from improved crop yields (Frisvold, 1997).
This implies that national governments will underfund germ plasm storage (NRC,
1991). The US National Research Council has noted that many public gene banks
are not effectively preventing genetic erosion within their collections (NRC,
1993). Public gene banks have even been characterised as "gene morgues"
(Goodman, 1990). Multilateral funding of international crop research facilities
overcomes this problem partly. Yet, "free-rider" problems (see
9.4.2) imply that funding for international centres will also be difficult.
New technologies that are freely available to those who do not pay for their
development, may discourage potential funding sources.
A recent comprehensive study shows that:
Thus, while plant breeders appear confident that the current germ plasm stock, if properly maintained, is adequate to produce steady yield growth over the next 20-50 years (Knudson, 1999; Frisvold and Condon, 1998), there is widespread concern that this genetic stock is depreciating. Of particular concern is the status of the collections of the Vavilov Institute in Russia, one of the largest collections in the world. It is facing critical financial and structural problems (Zohrabian, 1995).
Limitations on the CGIAR system
As the new seed-fertiliser technology generated at the CGIAR centres, particularly
for rice and wheat, began to become available, some donors assumed that the
CGIAR centres could bypass the more difficult and often frustrating efforts
to strengthen national agricultural research systems. Strong national research
centres are essential if the prototype technology that might be developed at
the international centres is to be broadly transferred, adopted and made available
to producers.
Problems have not only been financial. A number of the CGIAR centres are experiencing the difficulties associated with organisational maturity. There is a natural "life cycle" sequence in the history of research organisations and research programmes (Ruttan, 1992). Certainly, the needs of technology transfer in climate change would encourage the vigor of the system. On the other hand, efforts to strengthen national research institutes have been only partially successful.
Growing role of the private sector
Many studies have considered the public good aspects of genetic resources. Naturally
occurring plants are not considered patentable inventions. Genetic resources
are easily transported and replicated, making it difficult for a country or
individual to exclude others from their use. This discourages private actors
from making investments to preserve and collect genetic resources and to screen
them for their potential usefulness. Intellectual property protection historically
has been weak for biological inventions. While patents on mechanical processes
date back hundreds of years, intellectual property rights (IPRs) for commercially
developed seed varieties began only this century, and remain considerably weaker
than other forms of IPR protection (see also Section 3.5
in Chapter 3 on IPRs).
Historically, there have been two major institutional responses to the private sector's inability to gain from and invest in plant breeding. The first, as described above, has been the extensive public funding of an international network of public research facilities and institutions. The second response, has been the evolution of increasingly strict IPRs for biological inventions. Both stricter IPRs and advances in hybridisation have stimulated private R&D in plant breeding. The progeny of hybrids have substantially lower yields. This naturally deters purchasers of seed from regenerating new seed for their own use or for resale. The requirement that farmers repurchase seed annually greatly increases returns to private plant (seed) breeders. While public R&D investment has slowed considerably in recent years, private R&D has grown substantially. For example, private plant breeding research in the United States more than quadrupled in real terms between 1970 and 1990.
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