Poverty reduction and food security: impacts of GM crops

Research in this section asks: what have been the impacts of GM crops on poverty and food security? The emphasis across this work is on the social and economic differentiation of impacts on diverse rural livelihoods.

One major finding in this area is that aggregate statistics and scenarios are insufficient predictors of food insecurity, and may offer a misleading picture based on food gaps. A further conclusion is that agricultural production technologies may not always be the major limiting factors: market access, input supplies and environmental contexts may be as important.

The fact that poverty and food insecurity emerge from local contexts and that the answer lies in locally-tailored solutions is certain. Biotechnological solutions beyond GM crops, including marker-assisted selection, may however be more appropriate. Varietal choice and integrated crop, soil and pest management approaches may be as important to boosting production as new genetic traits.