The role of the private sector and corporate control

A number of studies of biotechnology business in action have been undertaken, including detailed analyses of the role of the corporate sector – and particularly Monsanto – in India. Case studies from China look at the cross-over between state and private sectors, while the Latin American cases, particularly from Argentina, examine the changing nature of corporate agriculture.

Biotechnology is a key investment area, and a potential source of GDP growth. While business activity may bring some jobs and boost company profits and overall growth statistics, the impacts on wider poverty reduction and development objectives are limited. Some of the key findings in this area show relatively prosperous developing-country farmers may thrive as a result of private agribusinesses developing the emerging markets in the global south, but the poorest and most vulnerable farmers remain of marginal interest to the big biotech firms.

Across the world, the seed sector has changed dramatically in recent years, and the relationship between a private seed sector – with or without GM technologies – and state provision of seeds is an important factor influencing the degree to which a ‘pro-poor’ developmental orientation exists.

Public-private partnerships (around intellectual property sharing, for example) are often highly one-sided, with public resources subsidising private sector activity in return for limited public gain. The dynamics of, and interests behind, such relationships deserve careful scrutiny.