Abstract
BackgroundLimited analysis has been conducted of the role of agricultural research in promoting Chinese agricultural growth in less-favored areas. This paper analyzes how a particular potato variety generates benefits to producers and discusses how these benefits may have contributed to poverty reduction in Yunnan province. Cooperation 88 (C88) is a high-yielding, late blight-resistant variety that was developed through a partnership between the International Potato Center and Yunnan Normal University in Kunming, China.MethodsQualitative and quantitative methods are used to analyze determinants of adoption of C88, and to estimate impacts of adoption on producer well-being. A unique farm-household database is used to document the determinants of C88 adoption and disadoption. The quantitative assessment is supplemented with a qualitative analysis of the potato value chain to understand how seed availability and concern for processing attributes contributed to and eventually constrained diffusion. Market-level information was used in an economic surplus model to quantify the substantial economic impact of C88 over 20 years since its release.ResultsC88 spread rapidly in Yunnan following its release and was widely adopted by commercially oriented farmers. Disadoption began after 2010 with limited seed availability driving the shift toward newer varieties. Farmers, however, appreciate the ease of marketing, the 15% higher yields, and late-blight resistance associated with C88 suggesting that seed constraints are countervailing the economic benefits of the variety. Total impact on Yunnan potato farmers of the variety was estimated to be around $2.5 billion for the 1996–2015 period.ConclusionsOn per-person terms among C88 growing farm households, the economic advantage of the variety is likely to have contributed to poverty reduction. The aggregate impact of C88 diffusion occurred during a period of rapid poverty reduction in Yunnan and yield and disease-resistance benefits of C88 likely contributed to this reduction.
Highlights
Poverty in China fell dramatically from 53 to 8% between 1980 and 2000, but wide geographic disparities existed into the early 2000s with mountainous interior regions lagging behind coastal areas (Chen et al 2006)
An initial burst of farm income growth followed the introduction of the Household Responsibility System (HRS) in 1978 as the government allowed access to markets and supported producer prices
Since we are interested in the decision among multiple alternative varieties, we model this decision as a Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) probit
Summary
Poverty in China fell dramatically from 53 to 8% between 1980 and 2000, but wide geographic disparities existed into the early 2000s with mountainous interior regions lagging behind coastal areas (Chen et al 2006). An initial burst of farm income growth followed the introduction of the Household Responsibility System (HRS) in 1978 as the government allowed access to markets and supported producer prices. This income growth contributed to rapid poverty reduction in many agricultural-dominated rural areas. Cooperation 88 (C88) is a high-yielding, late blight-resistant variety that was developed through a partnership between the International Potato Center and Yunnan Normal University in Kunming, China. Late blight spreads quickly in cool, wet environments, and is especially detrimental to winter-season potato production in Yunnan Province (Li et al 2010; Jansky et al 2009). Yunnan is a major producing area for winter-season potatoes
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