Biodiversity and modern crop varieties: Sharpening the debate

Debates about the relationship between agricultural technology and the conservation of crop genetic diversity are often hampered by unclear vocabulary and imprecise data. Various interpretations of the terms “modern variety,” “local variety,” “hybrid,” and “green revolution” are first explored, and then evidence is examined regarding the effect of modern varieties on intra- and intercrop diversity, risk, input use, and farmer decision-making. The objective is to urge a more reasoned debate about the future of plant genetic resources.

[1]  K. Zimmerer.  MANAGING DIVERSITY IN POTATO AND MAIZE FIELDS OF THE PERUVIAN ANDES , 1991 .

[2]  L. Yapa.  What Are Improved Seeds? An Epistemology of the Green Revolution , 1993 .

[3]  Ariel Salleh,et al.  Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development. By Vandana Shiva. London: Zed Books, 1989. , 1991, Hypatia.

[4]  M. Cowen,et al.  Doctrines of Development , 1996 .

[5]  R. Pedace.  Monocultures of the mind : perspectives on biodiversity and biotechnology, Vandana Shiva, Zed Books and Third World NetWork, 1993, 183 páginas , 1994 .

[6]  T. Brass.  Introduction: The new farmers’ movements in India , 1994 .

[7]  M. V. Dorp,et al.  Genetic diversity, farmer experimentation and crop research. , 1993 .

[8]  S. Brush.  Reconsidering the green revolution: Diversity and stability in cradle areas of crop domestication , 1992 .

[9]  R. Peet.  RELATIVE DIVERSITY INDICES , 1975 .

[10]  F. Bray.  The Rice Economies: Technology and Development in Asian Societies , 1987 .

[11]  Derek Byerlee,et al.  Technical change in maize production: A global perspective , 1994 .

[12]  T. Bowyer-Bower,et al.  Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development , 1996 .

[13]  J. Vogel.  Genes for Sale: Privatization as a Conservation Policy , 1994 .

[14]  M. Chibnik.  Small Farmer Risk Aversion: Peasant Reality or Policymakers' Rationalization? , 1981 .

[15]  R. Cummings.  Agricultural Change in Vietnam's Floating Rice Region , 1978 .

[16]  J. Woolley,et al.  Maize plant types suitable for present and possible bean relay systems in Central America , 1986 .

[17]  Prabhu Pingali,et al.  Pesticides, rice productivity, and farmers' health: an economic assessment. , 1993 .

[18]  P. Richards,et al.  Coping with Hunger: Hazard and Experiment in an African Rice-Farming System , 1988 .

[19]  S. Brush.  In Situ Conservation of Landraces in Centers of Crop Diversity , 1995 .

[20]  G. Scobie,et al.  The Impact of Technical Change on Income Distribution: The Case of Rice in Colombia , 1978 .

[21]  D. R. Hoy,et al.  Nealtican, Mexico: A Peasant Community That Rejected the ‘Green Revolution’ , 1979 .

[22]  D. Byerlee,et al.  The rate of crop varietal replacement on farms: measures and empirical results for wheat , 1991 .

[23]  F. Gascón,et al.  'Second-generation' MVs and the evolution of the green revolution: the case of Central Luzon, 1966-1990 , 1994 .

[24]  R. Mead,et al.  Intercropping Sorghum with Cowpea in Dryland Farming Systems in Botswana. II. Comparative Stability of Alternative Cropping Systems , 1987, Experimental Agriculture.

[25]  J. Rigg.  The new rice technology and agrarian change: guilt by association? , 1989 .

[26]  New seeds and poor people , 1989 .

[27]  Chantana Banpasirichote,et al.  The Development Dictionary: A Guide to Knowledge as Power , 1997 .

[28]  Sara Berry,et al.  No Condition Is Permanent: The Social Dynamics of Agrarian Change in Sub-Saharan Africa , 1993 .

[29]  M. Altieri.  Agroecology: The Scientific Basis Of Alternative Agriculture , 1987 .

[30]  Derek Byerlee,et al.  Modern varieties, productivity, and sustainability : recent experience and emerging challenges , 1996 .

[31]  E. Rogers,et al.  Diffusion of Innovations , 1964 .

[32]  D. Tribe.  Feeding and Greening the World: The Role of International Agricultural Research , 1994 .

[33]  M. Vaughan,et al.  Cutting down trees: gender, nutrition, and agricultural change in the Northern Province of Zambia, 1890-1990. , 1993 .

[34]  E. Asmis.  Philodemus's Poetic Theory and "On the Good King According to Homer" , 1991 .

[35]  N. Stern,et al.  Agricultural change and inequality in Palanpur, 1957-84 , 1993 .

[36]  W. de Boef,et al.  Cultivating Knowledge: Genetic Diversity, Farmer Experimentation and Crop Research , 1993 .

[37]  N. W. Simmonds,et al.  Selection for local adaptation in a plant breeding programme , 1991, Theoretical and Applied Genetics.

[38]  R. A. Mueller,et al.  Private research and public benefit: The private seed industry for sorghum and pearl millet in India , 1991 .

[39]  E. Wilson,et al.  The Diversity of Life , 1993, Politics and the Life Sciences.

[40]  Charles Francis,et al.  Multiple Cropping Systems , 1986 .

[41]  Louise Sperling,et al.  Rethinking the Farmer's Role in Plant Breeding: Local Bean Experts and On-station Selection in Rwanda , 1993, Experimental Agriculture.

[42]  D. Mccloskey.  Knowledge and Persuasion in Economics , 1994 .

[43]  D. K. Freebairn.  Did the Green Revolution Concentrate Incomes? A Quantitative Study of Research Reports , 1995 .

[44]  M. Collinson,et al.  Plants, Genes and People: Improving the Relevance of Plant Breeding in Africa , 1990, Experimental Agriculture.

[45]  D. Marshall.  THE ADVANTAGES AND HAZARDS OF GENETIC HOMOGENEITY , 1977 .

[46]  R. Salazar,et al.  Community plant genetic resources management: experiences in Southeast Asia. , 1992 .

[47]  A. Linnemann,et al.  Seed Industry Development in a North-South Perspective , 1990 .

[48]  J. Ryan,et al.  Effect of Green Revolution in wheat on production of pulses and nutrients in India , 1977 .

[49]  S. Ceccarelli.  Wide adaptation: How wide? , 1989, Euphytica.

[50]  Andrew Ross.  The Chicago Gangster Theory of Life: Nature's Debt to Society , 1995 .

[51]  P. W. Heisey,et al.  Chimanga cha makolo, hybrids, and composites: An analysis of farmers' adoption of maize technology in Malawi, 1989-91 , 1991 .

[52]  R. Lewontin,et al.  The Dialectical Biologist , 1987 .

[53]  P. N. Fox,et al.  Spring Wheat Diversity in Irrigated Areas of Two Developing Countries , 1994 .

[54]  N. W. Simmonds,et al.  Principles of crop improvement , 1979 .

[55]  M. Thompson.  Good science for public policy , 1993 .

[56]  T. Kuhn,et al.  The Structure of Scientific Revolutions , 1963 .

[57]  V. Shiva.  Monocultures of the mind: perspectives on biodiversity and biotechnology. , 1993 .

[58]  J. Goody.  Rice‐burning and the green revolution in northern Ghana , 1980 .

[59]  Peter B. R. Hazell,et al.  The Green Revolution Reconsidered: The Impact of High-Yielding Rice Varieties in South India , 1991 .

[60]  V. Shiva.  The Green Revolution in the Punjab , 1991 .

[61]  K. Zimmerer.  Labor Shortages and Crop Diversity in the Southern Peruvian Sierra , 1991 .

[62]  P. Pingali,et al.  Technological prospects for reversing the declining trend in Asia's rice productivity. , 1994 .

[63]  K. Dewey.  Nutritional consequences of the transformation from subsistence to commercial agriculture in Tabasco, Mexico , 1981 .

[64]  W. Lacy.  Biodiversity, cultural diversity, and food equity , 1994 .

[65]  Susanna B. Hecht,et al.  The ecology of traditional agroecosystems in Africa. , 1990 .

[66]  Sudhir Sen.  Reaping the green revolution: Food and jobs for all , 1975 .

[67]  J. Skees,et al.  Sacred Cows And Hot Potatoes , 1992 .

[68]  S. Smith,et al.  Do folk crop varieties have a role in sustainable agriculture , 1994 .