The purpose of this book is to assess a variety of economic issues as they relate to agro-biodiversity in a range of countries and show how addressing these issues can assist in agro-biodiversity policy-making. These are illustrated using empirical data from some of the countries which are part of the Genetic Resources Policy Initiative (Ethiopia, Nepal and Zambia) and applying the relevant economic methods of regression analysis, choice experiments, hedonic pricing, contingent ranking, contingent valuation and farm business income analysis.

The authors discuss the economics of managing crop diversity on-farm in the context of crop variety attribute preferences, farmers' perception of agro-biodiversity loss, and value addition and marketing of the products of traditional crop varieties. The case studies include detailed analysis of rice, maize and groundnut crop varieties and diversity. The results are shown to be relevant not only to GRPI countries but also potentially to other countries concerned with the sustainable utilization of these resources. Overall, they illustrate clearly how genetic resources issues can be integrated into development interventions to address potential policy trade-offs.

Table of Contents:

Contents

Preface

List of Contributors

1. Introduction

2. Economic Analysis of Ethiopian Farmers' Preferences for Crop Variety Attributes: A Choice Experiment Approach

3. Valuation of Rice Diversity in Nepal: A Trait-based Approach

4. Farmers' Perceptions on Replacement and Loss of Traditional Crop Varieties: Examples from Ethiopia and Implications

5. Consumers' Attribute Preferences and Traders' Challenges Affecting the Use of Local Maize and Groundnut Varieties in Lusaka: Implications for Crop Diversity Utilisation

6. Commercialization and Market Linkages for Promoting the Use of Local Rice Varieties and a Few Other Selected Species of Under-utilized PGRFA in Nepal - A case study

7. Findings, Conclusions, Implications and Outlook

Index