The study examines the least-cost option of conserving landraces in-situ by the development of market friction instruments. The empirical examination is comprised of two closely-related studies on eggplant production and consumption sectors of India. An examination of the cost and return...

This paper addresses the potential of <italic>in situ</italic> crop landrace conservation, employing market-based instruments, which pre-requires that (1) consumers hold positive use-value for the landrace attribute and (2) their willingness to pay covers both the transaction cost of implementing these...

This paper addresses the value of bioprospection for genetic resources (GR) and traditional knowledge (TK) from the South for industrial/research input. The focus is on a dynamic approach to contracting and property rights building upon insights from evolutionary institutional economics. Drawing...

This paper examines the role of direct compensation payments for agrobiodiversity conservation, using minor millet landraces in India as an example. The cost of farmer participation in a hypothetical ‘payments for agrobiodiversity conservation services’ (PACS) scheme is estimated using a...

Do transgenic crops cause agrobiodiversity erosion? We hypothesize that they increase productivity and reduce production risk and may therefore reduce farmer demand for on-farm varietal diversity, especially when only a few transgenic varieties are available. We also hypothesize that varietal...

Transgenic pest-resistant varieties are hypothesized to reduce farmers’ demand for on-farm diversity through an act of substitution, as both serve as production risk reducing instruments. This adverse agro-biodiversity impact of technology adoption might be partially counteracted by an...

This paper examines the impact of transgenic technology adoption on varietal diversity. Transgenic pest-resistant varieties are hypothesized to reduce farmers’ demand for on-farm diversity through an act of substitution, as both serve as production risk reducing instruments. This adverse...

This paper examines the ecosystem impacts of transgenic Bt cotton technology resulting from reduced chemical pesticide use. Employing unique panel data from smallholder farmers in central and southern India, negative environmental and health effects of pesticide use are quantified with the...

This paper is a micro-level investigation into the farm-level productivity and efficiency impacts of zero tillage (ZT), a prominent resource conservation technology in agriculture. Often heralded as more sustainable than its conventional tillage alternatives, ZT has a number of positive...