Chapter 24 - Technological Lock-In and Pathways for Crop Diversification in the Bio-Economy

Abstract

Crop diversification would improve the sustainability of Western agricultural production systems, yet few farmers have adopted this approach. This chapter presents an economic analysis of the main lock-in effects explaining why cropping diversity has not become widespread. Technological lock-in has resulted from the coevolution of crop systems (based on the post-WWII agrochemical paradigm), public policies, and market dynamics that promote major crops such as cereals. This chapter explains how interrelated factors have favored increasing returns to adoption for cereals to the detriment of minor crops. The evolutionary economics approach used here identifies the main economic mechanisms that reinforce the choice of an initial production pathway. Today with the development of the bio-economy, we also examine whether new technological pathways in the agro-food sector may be able to reverse this lock-in.