Agricultural Input Industries Research Articles

Does R&D spur firm performance in Indian agricultural inputs industry An empirical evidence using panel data regression models

Agricultural input industries in India have gone through a vital transformation in the last 20 years. Multinational corporations have swiftly increased their R&D expenditure in the pesticide, tractor and seed industries, thereby increasing competition in these input industries. Rapid growth in demand and improvement in technology implementations have lead us to study the performance and transformation of these input industries. Empirical analysis was performed on the listed firms during 2001-2018 to know the major factors affecting the firm performance in the seed, pesticide, fertiliser and agricultural machinery industries. The estimated panel regression models reveal that financial performance of these firms is positively related to the R&D expenditure along with market growth and working capital efficiency. Industry effects model, used to capture the industry-level heterogeneity shows that fertiliser and pesticide industries are seen to negatively impact the firm performance relative to machinery industry. Among the time-specific effects, only the time period 2006-2010 is found to be positive and statistically significant, confirming that the performance of agricultural input firms has significantly improved during the period 2006-2010. The study indicates that the policymakers should foster the spirit of innovation and outward orientation in agricultural input firms through policy incentives.

農業資材産業における多国籍アグリビジネスのグローバル戦略(資材価格高止まり・農産物価格低迷下の農業市場と政策課題,2010年度大会シンポジウム報告)

農業資材産業における多国籍アグリビジネスのグローバル戦略(資材価格高止まり・農産物価格低迷下の農業市場と政策課題,2010年度大会シンポジウム報告)

Mega-Mergers on the Menu: Corporate Concentration and the Politics of Sustainability in the Global Food System

The agricultural input industry has become more concentrated in the wake of recently announced corporate mergers in the sector. This article examines the environmental implications of corporate concentration in the agricultural input sector and outlines the challenges of establishing effective international policy and governance on this issue. The article makes two arguments. First, corporate concentration matters for food system sustainability. Consolidation in the global seed and agro-chemical industries has been deeply entwined with the rise of industrial agriculture, which has been associated with a host of environmental problems including an increase in agro-chemical use and the loss of agricultural biodiversity. Second, although corporate concentration has important sustainability implications, there is little recognition of the potential connection between these issues in international governance measures. The article outlines a number of factors that discourage the development of policy and governance on these issues, including the lack of a clear scientific consensus on how best to promote sustainable agriculture; the weak and fragmented nature of regulatory frameworks and institutions that oversee competition policy and food system sustainability; the power of agribusiness firms to influence policy outcomes; and the complex and distanced nature of the underlying drivers of corporate concentration in the sector.

Agricultural Research by the Private Sector

The private sector has assumed a larger role in developing improved technology for food and agriculture, with private agricultural R&D spending growing faster than public agricultural R&D spending over the past several decades. Major drivers have been new commercial opportunities afforded by scientific advances and liberalization of agricultural input markets. Along with rising private R&D investment, agricultural input industries have undergone significant structural changes. These developments have been pronounced in both high-income and developing countries. The rising importance of private R&D, however, does not imply a diminished role of the public sector, as most empirical evidence points to complementarities between public and private agricultural R&D.

The transformation of the Indian agricultural input industry: has it increased agricultural R&D?

AbstractIndian agricultural input industries have gone through a major transformation in the last 40 years. State owned firms grew during the Green Revolution and then stagnated or declined. Indian corporations that were protected from foreign competition are now exporters of agricultural tractors and pesticides. Foreign multinational corporations are rapidly increasing their role in the seed, pesticide, and tractor industries. Entry by large Indian firms and multinationals has increased competition in the input industries. Private agribusiness R&D in India grew from $23 million in 1985 to $250 million in 2009 in 2005 US dollars. This is the same time period as a transformation in the agricultural input industry, rapid growth in demand for agricultural inputs, breakthroughs in information technology and biotechnology, and changes in intellectual property rights. An econometric model was used to test whether the transformation of agricultural input industry was a major factor in the growth of R&D expenditure or not. This article analyzes a unique, firm level sales and R&D data set from the seed, pesticide, tractor, and fertilizer industries in 2000–2009. The estimated model indicates that agribusiness firms' R&D expenditures from 2000 to 2009 were positively related to variables associated with industry transformation such as firm size, ownership by multinationals, and declining industry concentration. The model also indicates that strengthening patent policy as well as growth in the size of research‐intensive industries like the seed industry contributed to the growth of agribusiness R&D in India.

Research Investments and Market Structure in the Food Processing, Agricultural Input, and Biofuel Industries Worldwide

Meeting growing global demand for food, fiber, and biofuel requires robust investment in agricultural research and development (R&D) from both public and private sectors. This study examines global R&D spending by private industry in seven agricultural input sectors, food manufacturing, and biofuel and describes the changing structure of these industries. In 2007 (the latest year for which comprehensive estimates are available), the private sector spent $19.7 billion on food and agricultural research (56 percent in food manufacturing and 44 percent in agricultural input sectors) and accounted for about half of total public and private spending on food and agricultural R&D in high-income countries. In R&D related to biofuel, annual private-sector investments are estimated to have reached $1.47 billion worldwide by 2009. Incentives to invest in R&D are influenced by market structure and other factors. Agricultural input industries have undergone significant structural change over the past two decades, with industry concentration on the rise. A relatively small number of large, multinational firms with global R&D and marketing networks account for most R&D in each input industry. Rising market concentration has not generally been associated with increased R&D investment as a percentage of industry sales.

Verenium achieves financial milestone in research collaboration with Syngenta

This case study focuses on the extension approach and the sustainability and impact of the Frijol Nica program of Syngenta. Private extension services are characterized by a combination of provision of input supply, financing, technical assistance, and linkages with traders. Effective partnerships and alliances with various entities are a key success factor. In a country where public extension has limited coverage, private extension has proved to be valuable in bridging the knowledge gaps of small-scale farmers. Innovative design and sound corporate management have enabled effective service delivery and creation of value for both producers and private actors. Such an approach can be replicated and expanded to other crops and to other countries by private companies in the agricultural input industry. Finding the right partners and a suitable extension model for each specific value chain are key to success.

Illegal GMO releases and corporate responsibility: Questioning the effectiveness of voluntary measures

Recent years have seen a number of cases of ‘accidental’ or ‘unintentional’ releases of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that were not approved for human consumption or in some cases even for commercial planting. The environmental, economic, and social implications of the release of unapproved varieties of GMOs are potentially significant. The agricultural input industry has recently embraced Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting and some of its major players are participants in the UN's Global Compact. While CSR and the Global Compact encourage internalization of environmental costs and application of the precautionary principle amongst firms, in the case of illegal GMO releases these measures have proven extremely weak. In the case of illegal GMO releases, external, state-based regulation which places liability squarely on firms is likely to be much more successful as a means to prevent future occurrences of this problem.

Effects of Foreign Intellectual Property Rights on U.S. Bilateral Exports of Biotechnology‐Related Agricultural Inputs

This paper examines the effect of foreign intellectual property right (IPR) systems and the policies that comprise them on U.S. exports of biotechnology related agricultural input industries. Policy components include the extent of patent coverage across industry sectors, enforcement mechanisms, provisions for loss of patent protection, memberships to other international patent agreements, and duration of patent protection. Extending the empirical and theoretical work of Smith (2002), this paper uses a gravity model to analyze how IPRs affect the market power and market expansion effects of exports to countries with differing abilities to imitate technology. The findings suggest that strengthening global IPRs grant a market power effect to U.S. exporters; strong IPRs reduce U.S. exports by awarding a temporary monopoly over the protected good. However, the analysis of the individual policy components of an IPR system reveal which components inhibit trade through market power effects and which components counterbalance it through market expansion effects, increasing the flow of trade and access to biotechnology related agricultural inputs. Copyright 2003 by Suzanne L. W. Wisniewski. All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies.

Transnational corporate interests and global environmental governance: negotiating rules for agricultural biotechnology and chemicals

This essay examines the role of the agricultural input industry in the negotiation of two environmental treaties: the Cartegena Protocol on Biosafety and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. It seeks to explain why industry players were willing to accept a phase-out of POPs chemicals but were reluctant to accept strict regulation of the trade in genetically modified organisms. This comparison is an important one to consider, as the line that once divided the agricultural chemicals and agricultural biotechnology industries has become more blurred, such that many of the same firms now are involved in both pesticide production and agricultural biotechnology. The essay argues that in order to fully understand industry positions on these two treaties, economic factors facing these industries must be examined. The shifting profitability of the pesticides and seeds industries over the past two decades goes a long way to explaining not only the positions industry players took in these two environmental treaty negotiations, but also the merger of the two sectors in recent years.

E-Business in the Agricultural Input Industries

A variety of factors are creating pressure for increased use of information technologies and e-business concepts in the agricultural input industries. Understanding where information technology and e-business concepts will add value to the distribution channels for agricultural inputs requires an understanding of the needs of the two primary agents in the channel: agricultural producers and manufacturers. In this paper, a framework for understanding the changes information technology and e-business may bring to the distribution channel is developed. In addition, some of the attitudes of managers toward e-business and the impacts of information technologies for the agricultural inputs industries are considered.

The contribution of agricultural input industries to agricultural innovation

This paper presents an analytical framework to measure how farmers (i.e., primary agriculture) in countries at different stages of economic development absorb new technology by buying inputs from other industries. By combining information on the use of purchased inputs in primary agriculture (based on country-specific input±output matrices) with information on R&D intensities in the various supplying industries (based on S&T surveys), an approximation can be made of the R&D investments embodied in those inputs. These "acquired" R&D investments can then be contrasted with local R&D investments that target primary agriculture directly, creating a more complete picture of the sources of innovation in primary agriculture. Data from three case study countries representing low-, middle- , and high-income countries (Colombia, Brazil, and the Netherlands) reveal quite remarkable differences and unexpected results, such as: the poorest of the three countries (Colombia) is relatively most dependent on technology that is imported, privately financed, and nonagricultural, while the richest of the three countries (the Netherlands) scores only highest in absolute terms; most acquired R&D concentrates in just two industrial clusters: the agrochemical industry and the agricultural machinery and transport equipment industry; moving from poor to rich countries, a deepening and diversification of input use in primary agriculture takes place mainly in relatively low-tech industries (e.g., services and energy). As a result, the average R&D intensity of agricultural inputs used in Dutch agriculture is not higher than those used in Colombian or Brazilian agriculture.

THE COMPETITIVENESS OF THE AGRICULTURAL INPUT INDUSTRY IN SOUTH AFRICA

The South African agricultural industry is consistently challenged to increase it, competitiveness. The agribusiness supply chain starts with the input sector. The objective of this paper is therefore to determine the competitiveness of the various agricultural input industries in South Africa by using Balassa's method of Repealed Comparative Trade Advantage. This status will then be related to performance of the agricultural industry as a whole. South African manufacturing of farming requisites as a whole are relative marginally competitive in the international area. However, positive trends in competitiveness is observed. The agricultural machinery industry is not competitive but is improving. The fertiliser industry is becoming increasingly more competitive while in the pesticides industry there is a decrease in the ability to compete internationally. From 1995 there is a relatively high and positive correlation between the competitiveness of the input industry and the agro-food industry in South Africa. This relationship substantiates tile claim that fundamentally the South African agricultural economy is more competitive today then a decade ago.

Structural change among agricultural input industries

Changes among agricultural input industries have important implications for US agriculture. Reasons for these changes have included the globalization of the marketplace, technological advances, and a changing farm sector. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

TRADE AND WELFARE EFFECTS OF EC ACCESSION ON THE UK AGRICULTURAL SUPPLY INDUSTRIES

The aim of this paper is to assess the effects of accession to the EC on the UK agricultural input industries using a technique commonly applied to examining the effects of accession on the manufacturing sector, the main emphasis being on trade patterns. Some attempt is made to differentiate between the effects of market‐widening and of the CAP, and an assessment of the welfare implications is given. The results indicate that the effect of market‐widening on the input industries was more important than the effect of the CAP and that the net loss of trade diversion was slightly outweighed by the benefits of export expansion

Regional variation in farm input use: The case of pesticides

Changes in crop production activities resulting from farm programs and policies alter the demand for inputs. This article discusses a statistical method by which regional input responses may be analyzed before aggregate impacts on farm production and income are forecast. Researchers and decision makers may anticipate projected changes in input markets based on the observed regional deviations of input use levels from national average quantities as explained by crop location and distribution effects. An example of pesticide use changes after implementing a conservation reserve program illustrates the value of incorporating regional variation factors into the analysis of impacts on agricultural input industries.

The Changing Nature of Agricultural Input Industries: Discussion

The Changing Nature of Agricultural Input Industries: Discussion

The Changing Nature of Agricultural Input Industries: Discussion

The Changing Nature of Agricultural Input Industries: Discussion