pray

Patents, Prizes, the Private Companies, and African Farmers: 

Patents, Prizes, the Private Companies, and African Farmers Carl E. Pray Rutgers University pray@aesop.rutgers.edu

Opportunities for Private Firms: 

Opportunities for Private Firms PIPRA AATF Innovation prizes Public research – National Systems and International Agricultural Research Centers

Private Sector Innovators in Africa: 

Private Sector Innovators in Africa Seed companies – Mainly Hybrid Corn (yellow and white) some Cotton and Soybeans US and European Multinationals Pioneer/DuPont Monsanto Syngenta Delta and Pineland African multinationals – Small farmer research programs Pannar (South Africa) Seed Coop (Zimbabwe) African national seed companies Kenya Seed Company Smaller seed companies

Corn technology is Appropriate for Small farmers – KwaZulu Natal, S. Africa: 

Corn technology is Appropriate for Small farmers – KwaZulu Natal, S. Africa

Conventional and GM Corn Cultivars Increase Yields: 

Conventional and GM Corn Cultivars Increase Yields

Important Consumer Benefits from GM corn : 

Important Consumer Benefits from GM corn Consumers like it – whiter flour Reduces risk of cancer and miscarriages by reducing consumers’ exposure to mycotoxins Higher moisture areas (e.g.Kenya) reduces Aflatoxins which cause liver cancer Dry areas (e.g.S.Africa) fumonisins which are associated with esophageal cancer

Waiting for Herbicide Tolerant Cotton: 

Waiting for Herbicide Tolerant Cotton

Private Sector Innovators II: 

Private Sector Innovators II Industrial crops – Cotton, tobacco, sugarcane, peanuts, oilpalm, cacao, coffee, tea, rubber, export bananas, flowers, sorghum (for beer) Exporters or processors organizing innovation to lower their costs Example – cotton ginners organizations in Zambia, privatization cotton marketing boards in Burkina Faso provide cotton varieties Sugarmills in Mozambique and South Africa tax themselves to support sugarcane breeding and agronomic research

What is constraining their innovative activities in Africa? : 

What is constraining their innovative activities in Africa? Small markets Small countries Poor farmers Inability to appropriate sufficient share of gains from research Cost of innovation Research costs Regulatory costs Barriers to the importation of technology

Regulations and Barriers to Trade the Binding Constraint : 

Regulations and Barriers to Trade the Binding Constraint Regulations/non tariff barriers strangle flow of new (non-GM) plant cultivars Pannar hybrid with resistance to leaf stripe virus works great but farmers could not get access in Kenya and now Uganda 3 to 5 years of trials required of foreign hybrids Biosafety regulation for GM crops No regulatory system Excessive regulation Even efficient regulation

South Africa has most efficient regulatory system for GM technology: 

South Africa has most efficient regulatory system for GM technology Costs institutions about $200,000 per event for events approved elsewhere in world Potato with a Bt gene that was not approved elsewhere will cost at least $800,000 (USAID will pay). Monsanto had to pay $1.8 million to get Bt cotton approved in India

Weak pull and push are major constraint in all crops except corn & industrial crops : 

Weak pull and push are major constraint in all crops except corn & industrial crops Hybrids provide some appropriablity in corn, sunflower, sorghum, and millets Corn hybrids cover 25% in Malawi, 90% Zambia and Zimbabwe, 95% South Africa Legal IPRs only on books except S.Africa No protection for most subsistence crops

Impact of PIPRA : 

Impact of PIPRA S. African sugar research Could buy Bt and transformation systems? U. of Capetown could get transformation technologies for African biotech network Problem – GM products - public sector events will have the largest costs of regulation

Impact of AATF: 

Impact of AATF Opportunities for seed companies to sell striga control system in maize Other opportunities to commercialize GM traits Advantage over PIPRA is greater support for package needed to commercialize Incentives for conventional technology of companies??? First 5 pilots are GM.

Impact of Research Prizes: 

Impact of Research Prizes African MNCs have research and extension programs for small scale farmers Pannar in S. Africa sells corn OPVs and hybrids – Might seek prize for OPVs Might induce adaptive research in new countries as way of exploring new markets Seed coop sells corn hybrids which were developed for small farmers in Zimbabwe - in some countries they might seek the prize (would have to give up inbred lines) Would national programs object to rewarding foreign companies?

Impact of Prizes II: 

Impact of Prizes II US & European MNCS Adaptive conventional breeding - yes More efforts to commercialize GM technology? – no unless it is a lot of money Industrials crops More techology transfer efforts in industrial crops if they were eligible for awards Might import and do adaptive research on food crops of their contract farmers

Summary: 

Summary Removal of restrictions on imports of conventional and improved regulations on GM plant varieties could have major impact on corn and cotton Prizes could induce more private research in subsistence crops in corn in small markets Impact will depend on the size and rules of prize AATF and PIPRA could be important for some GM subsistence crops but regulations a major constraint