Income and employment effects of transgenic herbicide-resistant cassava in Colombia: a preliminary simulation.

Abstract

AbstractThis study assesses the potential economic benefits of three strategies for improving cassava productivity in Colombia: transgenic herbicide-resistance; improved yield potential through conventional breeding; and mechanization of cassava planting and harvesting. An economic model based on surplus analysis is used to estimate the changes in equilibrium output and prices and consumer and producer benefits that would accrue from alternative changes in cassava technology in Colombia. Differences in the costs of cassava production with the different technologies are considered. The study shows that transgenic herbicide-resistant cassava would lead to substantially greater producer and consumer benefits than would higher-yielding varieties through conventional breeding or the mechanization of cassava in Colombia. Compared with current technology, all the technical innovation would lead to a reduction in employment in cassava, more or less on the same scale though the herbicide-resistant cassava is the most labour-displacing of the alternatives considered.