Understanding Agricultural Biotechnology Innovation in the Context of Development

The possible impacts of modern agricultural biotechnology on developing countries have widely been discussed. Optimistic perspectives stress that it may bring development and prosperity to poor countries whereas critics warn of the further marginalisation of already vulnerable communities. In this chapter we outline dominant notions of ‘development’ underpinning different visions regarding the impact of agricultural biotechnology on developing countries. This chapter contributes to greater conceptual clarity about the impact of agricultural biotechnology in developing countries. It is particularly helpful to compare the impact of agricultural biotechnology in developing countries to Green Revolution technologies. We found that the Green Revolution can largely be understood from the perspective of modernisation theory that emerged after World War II, a perspective which holds that technologies developed in the public domain in Western countries can be transferred to developing countries. Agricultural biotechnology, in contrast, should be understood from the perspective of neoliberal development theory as it is characterised by globalisation, free trade, patentable knowledge, and innovations led by multinationals. We conclude by highlighting that this situation may be currently shifting, as charities take a larger role in funding agricultural innovation and as recent developments in gene-editing technologies possibly open up a window of opportunity for the enhanced autonomy of poor countries in developing agricultural biotechnology themselves