A Model for Comparing and Evaluating Biotechnological Innovations for Small-Scale Farmers in Developing Countries

Biotechnology* is widely seen as one of the key technologies for generating innovations in agriculture, industry, human health care, etc. (1). This broad field of research is considered specifically as an instrument to promote rural development in the Third World by an improvement of agricultural production and the generation of jobs (1–4). However, recent developments in research are more likely to threaten than to support this improvement. The most important cause is that the present direction of biotechnological research is largely determined by the goals of pharmaceutical and chemical multinationals (5,6). Research in the fields chosen by these firms is strongly supported by Western governmental institutes and universities which closely cooperate with them (6–8). Market orientation hence dictates the focus of research as the substitution of raw agricultural products and the delivery of inputs for capital intensive, well-controlled farming systems (9).