The adoption and impact of agricultural biotechnology innovations in South Africa

South Africa is one of the few developing countries and probably the only one in Africa that has adopted some new biotechnology inputs, largely maize and cotton seeds, but what research is being performed to investigate the effects? This paper attempts to briefly outline the pattern of adoption of GM crops in South Africa as well as highlighting a number of active biotechnology research programmes currently underway.This paper starts with an overview of the structure of the South African agricultural input industry and shows the changes in the industry in response to some of the innovations in the agricultural input industry, specifically that of biotechnology. It then discusses the adoption of the new biotech cultivars of maize and cotton amongst farmers in South Africa. It concludes with one of the first preliminary analyses of the economic and environmental impact emanating from the adoption of these two biotechnology inputs.The paper finds that:there has thus far been no study in South Africa that tried to determine the economic and environmental benefits of GM cropsBollgard cotton has potential benefits through the higher gross margins compared to normal cotton due to higher yields, lower insecticide costs, and labor saving because of less pesticide applicationsadoption of Bt maize has not been that impressive due to perception and rumours that buyers of maize are willing to pay a premium for non-Bt maize because of export possibilitiesThe paper concludes that:the trend of mergers and acquisitions characterizing the agricultural input industries in Europe and USA has affected the South African marketit is not mergers and acquisitions between local companies that took place but it was largely the increased role of the large multinationals such as Monsanto, DowAgrosciences, and Novartis in the South African input market which was most notable