GMOs and poverty: the relationship between improved seeds and rural transformations

ABSTRACT

This essay draws on the extensive empirical literature to address the question: Can genetically modified (GM) crops help poor people? The evidence suggests that GM crops can generate sizeable yield advantages for small-scale farming families in low-income countries through avoiding losses to pests and disease. These advantages may improve considerably the welfare of people who depend on farming for most of their income. However, since poverty is a complex phenomenon and improved seed in and of itself plays a limited role in rural transformation, much more is needed to generate an impact on poverty, including investments in the architecture of rural institutions and farmer knowledge.

RÉSUMÉ

D’après les données probantes issues de nombreuses études empiriques, les cultures génétiquement modifiées (GM) peuvent, en prévenant les pertes dues aux parasites et aux maladies, générer des bénéfices substantiels pour les familles des petits exploitants agricoles des pays à faible revenu. Elles sont susceptibles d’améliorer de façon considérable le bien-être des populations dont la majeure partie des revenus provient de l’agriculture. Cependant, parce que la pauvreté est un phénomène complexe et que les semences améliorées jouent en elles-mêmes un rôle limité dans la transformation du milieu rural, d’autres conditions comme des investissements dans l’architecture des institutions rurales et dans la formation des agriculteurs sont essentielles pour générer un effet sur la pauvreté.

KEYWORDS:

• GM crops
• poverty reduction
• knowledge systems
• improved seed
• farm families

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank two anonymous reviewers and the participants in a three-day event organised by Matthew Schnurr and hosted by the Department of International Development Studies at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1–3 October 2015, entitled “Can Genetically Modified Crops Help the Poor?”

Notes on contributor

Melinda Smale joined Michigan State University in 2011 as Professor for International Development, after working for over 25 years in research conducted with developing country scientists at the International Food Policy Research Institute, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center and Bioversity International. She has led projects on the adoption of agricultural innovations, economic impacts of biotech crops and agricultural biodiversity, and has published over 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals and five edited books.

Notes

1. The case studies led and summarised by Smale and Falck-Zepeda (2012) were funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and as part of the same project, Oxfam America funded the studies led and synthesised by Tripp (2009).