AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE PRODUCTION EFFECTS OF ADOPTING GM SEED TECHNOLOGY: THE CASE OF FARMERS IN ARGENTINA

The resulst show that there is a strong impact of the use of GMO soybean on
yields (Table 7). That result represents an increase on yields of 13% due to the use of
genetically modified soybean seed. As a result, this evidence shows that there is strong
support to the claim that genetically modified seeds represent an important improvement
for farmers.

Table 7: Econometric Model. Dependent Variable

Yield

Number of obs = 1753
F( 5, 1747)     = 292.30

Prob > F= 0.0000

R-squared= 0.4965

Given the legal setup in Argentina, we would like to investigate which farms use
genetically modified soybeans. As a result we run the following logit model,

Pr ob(Y_i = 1) = f (Farmer, Soc, Corp, Soy, Emp)

Where the new variable Emp is the total numbe of employees in the farm. The
results in Table 8 show that corporations tend to use less genetically modified soybean
than indifidual farmers and informal societies. This result can be an indication that, given
the legal uncertainty in Argentina, corporations seem to be more reluctant to use
genetically modified soybean than other farmers, despite the productive incentives to do
so. As a result, the weak enforcement and unclear regulation can induce different
strategies in the adoption of new technologies.

21

<<   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   >>

More intriguing information