Socio-economic assessment and genetically engineered crops in Africa: Building knowledge for development?

Abstract

How could we know if agricultural development interventions make contributions to sustainable development goals (SDGs)? Genetically engineered (GE) crops are celebrated as a class of technological interventions that can realize multiple SDGs. But recent studies have revealed the gap between GE crop program goals and the approaches used to assess their impacts. Using four comprehensive reviews of GE crop socio-economic impacts, we identify common shortcomings across three themes: (a) scope, (b) approaches and (c) heterogeneity. We find that the evaluation sciences literature offers alternative assessment approaches that can enable evaluators to better assess impacts, and inform learning and decision-making. We recommend the use of methods that enable evaluations to look beyond the agronomic and productive effects of individual traits to understand wider socioeconomic effects.

Keywords

Genetically engineered; Africa; Assessment; Evaluation; Agriculture; Development

Published in

Global Food Security
2024, volume: 42, article number: 100782
Publisher: ELSEVIER

SLU Authors

• Fischer, Klara

  • Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Genetics and Breeding

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2024.100782

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/131336