GMOs and poverty: yield gaps, differentiated impacts and the search for alternative questions

ABSTRACT

This short commentary reflects on the question: Can genetically modified (GM) crops help the poor? It aims not to provide a definitive answer but rather to grapple with the question itself, in the hope of illuminating some of the critical assumptions and values that shape exchanges on this polarising and politicised question.

RÉSUMÉ

Ce court commentaire se veut une réflexion sur la question : Les cultures génétiquement modifiées (GM) peuvent-elles aider les pauvres? Le but n’est pas d’apporter une réponse définitive mais plutôt de débattre de cette question, à la fois polarisante et politisée, dans l’espoir d’éclairer quelques-unes des suppositions et valeurs cruciales qui façonnent les échanges qu’elle provoque.

KEYWORDS:

• Genetically modified crops
• poverty
• yield gap
• farmer decision-making
• agricultural development

Notes on contributor

Matthew A. Schnurr is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Development Studies at Dalhousie University. His research interests are in environment and development, political ecology, agricultural biotechnology and farmer decision-making, with a geographical focus on Eastern and Southern Africa.

Notes

1. The workshop took place on 1–3 October 2015, hosted at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

2. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is one of the major donors to the Global Yield Gap Atlas, a tool to enable farmers, governments and policy makers identify exploitable yield gaps to improve food security (see http://www.yieldgap.org/).