Economic perspective for agricultural biotechnology research planning

There is no other agricultural technology that has been subjected to as many controversies as agricultural biotechnology. More than ever, intelligent decisions about this technology would be based on scientific data and objective analyses. As we meet the challenges of food security in a sustainable way, and given the very limited land and energy resources; available alternatives are few. Because of its unique features, economic study in biotechnology deviates from the standard economic impact of technological changes, such as mechanization. It is more closely related to measuring the impact of pesticides, though the issue of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) has not been raised in the chemical technology. In addition, just like pesticides, some biotechnology products have externality effects. Thus the economic framework for its analysis will be consistent with the issues about the economics of sustainability, which has long-term benefits/costs and considered to be very knowledge intensive for both farmers and other handlers.