The socioeconomic benefits of biological control of western corn rootworm Diabrotica virgifera virgifera and wireworms Agriotes spp. in maize and potatoes for selected European countries

Journal of Plant Diseases and Protection - Innovative biological pest control of the western corn rootworm (WCR) Diabrotica virgifera virgifera and wireworms Agriotes spp. in maize and potato...     

Maximum vs minimum harmonization: what to expect from the institutional and legal battles in the EU on gene editing technologies

New plant‐breeding technologies (NPBTs), including gene editing, are widely used and drive the development of new crops. However, these new technologies are disputed, creating uncertainty in how their application for agricultural and food uses will be regulated. While in North America regulatory systems respond with a differentiated approach to NPBTs, the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) has in effect made most if not all NPBT subject to the same regulatory regime as genetically modified organisms (GMOs). This paper discusses from a law and economics point of view different options that are available for the EU's multi‐level legal order. Using an ex‐ante regulation versus ex‐post liability framework allows the economic implications of different options to be addressed. The results show that under current conditions, some options are more expensive than others. The least costly option encompasses regulating new crops derived from NPBTs similar to those used in ‘conventional’ breeding. The current regulatory situation in the EU, namely making the use of NPBTs subject to the same conditions as GMOs, is the most costly option. © 2019 The Authors. Pest Management Science published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.     

Perspective: regulation of pest and disease control strategies and why (many) economists are concerned

Pests and diseases are a continuous challenge in agriculture production. A wide range of control strategies have been and will continue to be developed. New control strategies are in almost all countries around the world assessed prior to approval for use in farmers' fields. This is rightly so to avoid and even reduce negative effects for human health and the environment. Over the past decades the approval processes have become increasingly politicized resulting in an increase in the direct approval costs and the length in approval time without increasing the safety of the final product. This reduces the development of control strategies and often has negative human health and environmental effects. Possibilities exist for improvements. They include reducing approval costs and approval time by streamlining the approval process and substituting approval requirements by strengthening ex‐post liability. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry     

Diverging incentives for afforestation from carbon sequestration: an economic analysis of the EU afforestation program in the south of Italy

This study analyses the change in faustmannian age considering the social benefits due to carbon sequestration under the Regulation 2080/92, the subsidies provided by the afforestation program and investigates, from the social point of view, the profitability of afforesting agricultural land. The analysis refers to Calabria, a region situated in the south of Italy. Representative species are chosen for this study. The optimal harvesting age excluding social benefits varies between 32 and 40 years according to the species considered. When including social benefits, optimal harvesting age increases for a carbon price of 20 €/t to 34–44 years and is close to the one excluding them. The inclusion of subsidies to encourage afforestation shortens the optimal harvesting age to 17–20 years from the forest owner's point of view. Interestingly the provision of subsidies contributes to a substantial increase in social loss due to the differences in optimal harvesting ages: starting from zero C price the loss vary between 65 and 165 €/ha according to the species used and increases with rising carbon prices up to 200–400 €/ha for carbon price of 100 €/t. Furthermore, results suggest that from the social point of view the profitability of afforesting agricultural land in the study region very much depends on the price of carbon, on the type of agricultural land afforested and on the species used.     

Economic incentives for abandoning or expanding gum arabic production in Sudan

In this paper we use a real options approach to analyze farmers' economic incentives to abandon gum production or expand by creating new plantations. Our results indicate that agricultural crops currently provide higher economic benefits as compared to gum agroforestry. However, we show that the incentives for gum producers to abandon gum production is low, because (i) land is abundant, (ii) gum arabic is produced during the dry season and agricultural crops mainly during the wet season, and (iii) the dry season opportunity cost of labor is low. Hence, an increase in deforestation in the near future is not expected. The analysis further shows that an increase in the prices of gum arabic of about 315% is needed to induce an expansion of gum agroforestry and a shift in land use system from continuous agricultural production to gum agroforestry system. Hence, also an expansion of gum forests and/or agroforests in the near future is not expected. Price policies to improve incentives for expanding gum forests are discussed.     

The Maximum Incremental Social Tolerable Irreversible Costs (MISTICs) and other benefits and costs of introducing transgenic maize in the EU-15

The decision to release a new transgenic crop variety for planting in the European Union (EU) is a decision under irreversibility and uncertainty. We use a real option model to assess the ex-ante incremental benefits and costs of the decision to release Bt maize and HT maize in the EU-15 member states. The analysis uses Eurostat data for modelling the benefits and costs of non-transgenic maize using partial equilibrium models. The farm-level benefits and costs of Bt maize and HT maize are derived from field trials conducted within the EU-funded ECOGEN project in combination with secondary data sources. Adoption curves, hurdle rates and Maximum Incremental Social Tolerable Irreversible Costs (MISTICs) are calculated at country level for selected EU-15 member states. In general, the results show that the MISTICs on a per capita level are very small confirming previous results calculated in values for the year 1995. The MISTICs per farm are much larger. This indicates a problem for decision makers.