The Asian Maize Biotechnology Network (AMBIONET): A Model for Strengthening National Agricultural Research Systems

Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Deregulating technology transfer in agriculture : reform's impact on turkey in the 1980s

Turkey is one of a handful of developing countries that have liberalized regulation of agricultural inputs and welcome private firms delivering technology and inputs. The authors show that Turkish regulatory reform affecting seeds and other inputs in the 1980s: 1) Greatly increased private technology transfer into Turkey. 2) Encouraged market entry for more foreign and domestic companies involved in production and trade in Turkey. 3) Allowed private firms to increase their share of input markets. 4) Where inputs brought new technology, allowed farmers to significantly increase yields and production. The authors recommend that the World Bank and other donors involved with agriculture pay more attention to the regulation of inputs in developing countries. They also recommend that developing country governments revise regulations to leave choices about technology performance to farmers and markets - and to focus instead on externalities, removing unnecessary obstacles to provide technology transfer through the production and trade of inputs. Other countries that have similarly reformed the regulation of agricultural inputs include Chile (in the 1970s), Bangladesh and India (at the end of the 1980s), Malawi (in 1995-96), and Romania (in 1997).Knowledge Economy,Agricultural Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Crops&Crop Management Systems,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Economic Theory&Research,Crops&Crop Management Systems,Agricultural Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems

Intellectual Property Rights on Research Tools: Incentives or Barriers to Innovation?

This paper examines the role of patents in the development and use of two platform technologies for plant biotechnology - plant transformation techniques and structural genomics. We find that patents were important in inducing private firms to develop these platform technologies. There development led to the commercialization of more GM varieties, more rapidly than would have been the case otherwise. We did identify a number of examples of GM varieties that were slowed down by the patents on tools. However, our preliminary assessment of the evidence suggests that the benefits from patents on tools outweigh the costs.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

The Mountain Pass Rare-Earth Deposits

Rare-earth minerals were discovered near Mountain Pass in northeastern San Bernardino County, Calif., in April 1949, and in the following year the Sulphide Queen carbonate body was found. This body is the world's greatest known concentration of rare-earth metals with a tonnage larger than the total of all rare earths used in the world prior to 1950. The rare earths in the Mountain Pass district are chiefly cerium, lanthanum, and neodymium. These elements occur principally in bastnaesite, a rare-earth fluocarbonate, heretofore reported from only about 10 localities in the world. The bastnaesite was discovered in samples from Mountain Pass obtained by H. E. Woodward and Clarence Watkins of Goodsprings, Nev., and its identity was established in laboratory studies by E . T. Schenk of the U. S. Bureau of Mines and D. F. Hewett of the U. S. Geological Survey. Subsequent prospecting by individuals and geologic investigations by the U. S. Geological Survey resulted in the discovery of bastnaesite in the Sulphide Queen carbonate body and numerous other deposits in a belt 6 miles long. Investigations by the U. S. Geological Survey since 1949 (Olson et al., in preparation) include detailed mapping of the site of the initial discovery-the Birthday claims-by L. C. Pray and W. N. Sharp; geologic mapping of the district by J. C. Olson; detailed mapping of the Sulphide Queen carbonate body and several smaller deposits by D. R. Shawe and W. N. Sharp; and laboratory mineralogic investigations by H. W. Jaffe

Pearl millet and sorghum improvement in India:

millions fed, food security, Pearl millet, Sorghum,

Agricultural Research and Technology Transfer by the Private Sector in the Philippines

Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Stability Properties of the Time Domain Electric Field Integral Equation Using a Separable Approximation for the Convolution with the Retarded Potential

The state of art of time domain integral equation (TDIE) solvers has grown by leaps and bounds over the past decade. During this time, advances have been made in (i) the development of accelerators that can be retrofitted with these solvers and (ii) understanding the stability properties of the electric field integral equation. As is well known, time domain electric field integral equation solvers have been notoriously difficult to stabilize. Research into methods for understanding and prescribing remedies have been on the uptick. The most recent of these efforts are (i) Lubich quadrature and (ii) exact integration. In this paper, we re-examine the solution to this equation using (i) the undifferentiated form of the TD-EFIE and (ii) a separable approximation to the spatio-temporal convolution. The proposed scheme can be constructed such that the spatial integrand over the source and observer domains is smooth and integrable. As several numerical results will demonstrate, the proposed scheme yields stable results for long simulation times and a variety of targets, both of which have proven extremely challenging in the past.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figures. To be published in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagatio

Some Like It Mild and Not Too Wet: the Influence of Weather on Subjective Well-Being

More and more economists and politicians are advocating the use of comprehensive measures of well-being, on top of the usual national accounting measures, to assess the welfare of populations. Researchers using subjective well-being data should be aware of the potential biasing effects of the weather on their estimates. In this paper, I investigate the responsiveness of well-being to climate and transitory weather conditions by analyzing subjective well-being data collected in the Princeton Affect and Time Survey. I study general satisfaction questions about life in general, life at home, health and one’s job, as well as questions concerning feelings intensities during specific episodes. I find that women are much more responsive than men to the weather, and that life satisfaction decreases with the amount of rain on the day of the interview. Low temperatures increase happiness and reduce tiredness and stress, raising net affect, and high temperatures reduce happiness, consistent with the fact that the surveys was conducted in the summer. I conclude by suggesting methods to reduce the possible biases.Subjective well-being, life satisfaction, happiness, weather, temperature, precipitation

The Asian Maize Biotechnology Network (AMBIONET): A Model for Strengthening National Agricultural Research Systems

This report reviews the impacts of the Asian Maize Biotechnology Network (AMBIONET), organized by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) with funding from the Asian Development Bank to strengthen the capacity of public maize research institutions in China, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam to produce high-yielding, disease resistant, stress tolerant maize cultivars. It was found that, during its lifetime (1998-2005), AMBIONET clearly benefited researchers and institutions in participating countries, as well as CIMMYT. In addition, there was good progress toward developing improved cultivars. Asian farmers are just beginning to gain from the work, but their future benefits will likely pay for AMBIONET’s relatively modest expenditures many times over.Zea mays, Plant breeding, Biotechnology, Breeding methods, Research methods, Disease resistance, Yield increases, Research institutions, China, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Viet Nam, Asia, Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, F30, F01,

LIBERALIZATION'S IMPACT ON THE INDIAN SEED INDUSTRY: COMPETITION, RESEARCH, AND IMPACT ON FARMERS

This article attempts to measure the impact of IndiaÂ’s limited liberalization on the seed industry and on farmers. Using a unique data set on the structure, research, and sales of private seed firms at two points in time, 1987 and 1995, we provide evidence that liberalization increased the competitiveness of the seed industry, and increased the amount of research by Indian and foreign seed firms. Then, using government district level data and data collected from these firms, we show that private hybrids increased farmersÂ’ yields. This suggests that Indian farmers are the true beneficiaries of liberalization and that policies that encourage more competition and more research will provide future benefits to farmers.Crop Production/Industries,