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The impact of seed market access and transaction costs on potato biodiversity and yields in Bolivia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2012

Lina Salazar  and
Paul Winters
Lina Salazar
Affiliation:
Environment, Rural Development and Disaster Risk Management Division (INE/RND), Inter-American Development Bank, 1300 New York Ave. NW. Office #SW514, Washington, DC 20577, USA. Tel: 1-202-623-2830. Email: lsalazar@iadb.org
Paul Winters
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, American University, Washington, DC, USA. Email: winters@american.edu
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Abstract

Using data from Bolivia, this paper analyzes seed market participation and how transaction costs in these markets influence intracrop biodiversity and the influence of biodiversity on yields. Results indicate that seed market attributes such as distance and market-level biodiversity have a crucial effect on a farmer's market choice, suggesting that farmers are willing to sacrifice time and income to travel further distances in order to reach markets with a broader range of varieties. This study finds that farmers from this sample who have access to seed markets are more likely to have higher levels of intracrop biodiversity. In addition, for market-integrated farmers, intracrop biodiversity does not seem to have a negative effect on yields, which suggests that improved market access does not threaten biodiversity in contexts with similar characteristics to the study site.

Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 17 , Issue 5: Seed supply in local markets: supporting sustainable use of crop genetic resources , October 2012 , pp. 633 - 661
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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