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The Chinese Government has used a number of policies to encourage commercial agribusiness firms to do more innovation. These include public sector agricultural research and development (R&D), public sector biotechnology research and innovation, subsidies for commercial research, encouraging foreign firms to invest in China as minority shareholders in joint ventures, and allowing commercial companies to raise money on the stock market. The purpose of this paper is to assess whether these policies were effective in stimulating innovations by commercial firms in China.

This study estimates the impact of public biotech research and other policies by employing an econometric model of patenting by commercial firms. It uses a unique data set collected from commercial agribusiness firms for the years 2001, 2004, 2005, and 2006. Addition data were collected from public research institutes and universities and patent data from the Derwent Innovations Index database. It employs four count data models for the empirical analysis.

This study finds a positive impact of public biotechnology (measured by the number of biotech patents of government research institutes and public universities) on commercial innovation measured by the number of patents granted to the commercial firms. As expected the firm’s research expenditure and having their own R&D center (as opposed to contracting R&D or no R&D investment at all) have a positive and statistically significant effect on the number of patents granted. The impacts of public R&D investment spending have no statistically significant effect on commercial innovation. Multi-national firms and publicly traded firms have fewer patents than their counterparts suggesting that policies to encourage multi-nationals and financing through stock markets had no impact on innovation.

This study is one of the first studies to untangle the relationship between government policies and innovation by commercial agricultural research output and public R&D investment and biotechnology. The main findings suggest that simply increasing research money to public research does not increase commercial innovations, but moving resources to the development patentable biotech does improve commercial research productivity. The results also suggest that policies to increase commercial research will also increase innovation. These could include strengthening the legal framework and institutional resources for public institutes to the protection and enforcement of intellectual properties.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of changing biotechnology and intellectual property rights (IPRs), institutions, and policies for Canadian crop development related to oilseed rape or “canola” as a case study. Implications for China as it considers regulatory and institutional change related to private sector incentives to invest in biotechnology are also discussed.

The authors assess the effects of introducing biotechnology and IPRs in the Canadian oilseed sector over time. Data on the rate of return on agricultural research in general are presented and then the focus moves to the impacts for farmers in Canada. New data are gathered to estimate recent gains in the benefit of biotechnology advancements for farmers. Furthermore, the evolution of agricultural research in China is briefly presented, and a discussion follows that considers Canadian evidence and the possible applicability of the impacts to China.

The results support earlier studies identifying gains from agricultural research and show that private sector investments in Canada are now much higher than public sector investments and thus institutional innovations have been a powerful trigger to improve productivity. The gains from biotechnology for farmers are now over CND 1 billion per year in Canada.

The research gains measured are for Canada so should be applied to China’s situation only as a potential for gains.

While more work is needed to identify reasonable institutional incentives to generate private investment in China’s biotechnology industry, the potential impact in the Canadian canola sector highlights the importance of continuing the investment in biotechnology, and the need for appropriate policies and regulations to spur private investment.

Biotechnology greatly improved the welfare of farmers in Canada. Much of the gain the authors find was in improved yields and lower herbicide costs that improved farmer profits. Privatization of breeding was a key step in this transformation.

The paper contributes an updated review of Canadian intellectual property institutions related to biotechnology, and an updated measure of gains at the farm level. It also begins the analysis of the applicability of these institutional changes for China.

This paper seeks to provide an in‐depth discussion on the impact of agricultural biotechnology in developing and least developed countries (LDCs) as well as the concomitant biosafety concerns that might have an impact on trade and the environment whilst highlighting the importance of choosing development pathways that are conducive to the specific needs of these nations without endangering the biodiversity and affecting people's health.

The paper adopts a socio‐legal approach by undertaking a content analysis of decided cases, relevant treaties and existing studies conducted in areas related to agricultural biotechnology within the framework of sustainable development imperatives.

The paper suggests that developing countries venturing into agricultural biotechnology need to enrich the technology according to their needs and capabilities in order to be able to weigh the benefits against the risks in the production and import of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) specifically via the implementation of the “precautionary principle” and viable “risk assessment” techniques which conform to their existing international law obligations in view of the findings that most of these nations have not formulated adequate legal and institutional frameworks supported with the necessary expertise to regulate, monitor, and ensure safety of agricultural GMOs produced and/or imported by them.

The issues and suggestions in this paper will enable the development process of developing and least developed economies to conform to the tenets of sustainable development and minimize the loss of Earth's biodiversity.

The paper is of practical use to stakeholders and policymakers alike venturing into agricultural biotechnology. It pools the findings of a cross‐section of studies to look at the implications therein and the arising biosafety and trade issues with special reference to developing and LDCs.

Economic interest groups such as seed, pesticide, feed, and food companies play an important role in supporting or preventing the production of genetically modified (GM) crops. The purpose of this paper is to examine firm managers’ attitudes toward GM technology, biotechnology R&D investment, and political lobbying activities.

Using data from surveys of 160 managers in the food, feed, chemical, and seed industries in 2013-2014, this paper employed three probit models to examine the determinants of managers’ attitudes, biotechnology R&D investment, and lobbying activities.

The results show that most Chinese agribusiness managers are concerned about GM foods and oppose its adoption. Nevertheless, one-third of the firms invest in biotechnology R&D and less than 15 percent of managers lobbied the government to change biotechnology policies. The econometric estimation results suggest that profit change expectation is the main factor affecting managers’ attitudes and biotechnology R&D investment decisions, whereas lobbying activities are significantly influenced by their attitudes and biotechnology R&D investment. In addition, managers’ attitudes toward GM foods also significantly influence firms’ decisions to invest in biotechnology R&D.

This paper has improved on previous research in two ways. First, it analyses the determinants of agribusiness firm managers’ attitudes toward GM technology, biotechnology R&D investment, and lobbying activities. Second, the methodology involves an analysis of agribusiness firm survey data in the food, feed, chemical, and seed industries, which is the first time to use such data to research on economic interest group in agricultural biotechnology field.

It is argued that as the planets conventional natural resources are consumed, it has a profound effect on society and the environment. In order to maintain current levels of lifestyle, help solve some of the developing nation’s problems and ultimately survive, the world will look more to technology and science for the answers and this will call for partnerships that deliver new approaches and science‐based innovations (Teresko, 2006). This research is a part of a bigger study investigating the determinants of innovation in the New Zealand biotechnology sector. This paper discusses business innovation in general and how it could contribute to sustainable development across several key areas like agriculture, biotechnology, consumer products, energy and life sciences. To provide a link between business innovation and sustainability, the research paper explores trends across the following concepts: social expectations of innovation in the biotechnology field, innovations versus sustainability, sustainable agricultural biotechnology, and sustainable industry practices in the biotechnology field. Finally the paper provides some tentative ideas of the conditions required for business innovation to make a constructive contribution to sustainability.

To define strategic directions for the Russia’s social, economic, scientific and technological development in 2011-2013, a large-scale foresight study including the deep analysis of prospects of biotechnology development there was undertaken (Russia 2030: Science and Technology Foresight). This paper aims to present results of this research.

The study was based on a combination of technology-push and market-pull approaches that aimed not only to identify most promising science and technology (S&T) areas but also to understand how they can be realized in practice. Representatives from federal authorities, science and business were involved in the project to create future visions of technological directions; analyze grand challenges, weak signals and wild cards; and set research and development (R&D) priorities.

According to results of the study, Russia has a potential for biotech sector development, although the level of R&D in the majority of areas is lagging behind that in the USA and leading EU countries. However, there are several advanced applied research areas where efforts can be focused. Among them are high-performance genomics and post-genomics research platforms, systems and structural biology, microbial metabolic engineering, plant biotechnology and microbial strains and consortia for development of symbiotic plant–microbial communities.

Concentration of available resources of government and business on biotechnological sector development can help to find answers for challenges that Russia faces today or will face tomorrow. It will help to pick up on the current level of research activities, improve the quality of personnel training, make this area the engine of the economy and carry out the so-called new industrialization of the country, building a new, high-tech device industry.

This paper aims to analyse the mainstream and emerging global challenges and trends in the global agriculture sector. The analysis leads to a discussion on the present state of the Russian agroindustry and possible future strategies for adaptation in the context of the rapidly changing global environment.

The design of this study is based on the application of the core methods of Foresight. First, a trend analysis is undertaken using reviews and expert methods. Trends identified are mapped using a social, technological, economic, environmental, political and value (STEEPV) framework to ensure that a broad range of trends are covered, which may be stemming from various factors affecting the agriculture sector. The analysis of the big picture of global trends and challenges, interacting with country-specific structural factors, translates are translated into the opportunities and threats, which will in turn help to develop possible strategies for adaptation.

This study develops two adaptive strategies for the development of the Russian agroindustry that are feasible in different short- and long–term time horizons. The first strategy is considered to be the most likely choice for the period before 2020. It includes radical imports’ substitution (of commodities as well as machinery and high-tech components) for ensuring national food security with inevitable temporary setbacks in efficiency and labour productivity. The second strategy, which becomes feasible after 2020, considers re-integrating Russia into global supply chains and expanding commodities exports (volumes and nomenclature) based on full-scale technological modernization with the use of international capital.

The study design is based on the assumption that Russia’s position as a country, which is highly self-sufficient on basic agricultural products and large exporter of crop commodities and fertilizers, will remain unchanged in the horizon of at least 20 years. However, long-term forecasts should also scrutinize the possibility of radical structural changes. Therefore, future research should concentrate on wild cards that can completely disrupt and transform the Russian agriculture industry and as well as the whole economy.

This paper suggests a number of recommendations on national science and technology policy for the three main industries of the Russian agricultural sector: crop husbandry, animal breeding and food processing (the fisheries sector is excluded from the scope of this paper). In addition, this paper proposes a number of measures towards alleviating the institutional barriers to raise the investment attractiveness of the sector.

The novelty of this paper lies in the originality of the research topic and methodology. The Russian agricultural sector has rarely been studied in the context of global agricultural challenges and threats taken on the highest level of aggregation beyond commodity market analysis or agro-climatic and logistics factors. There are few or no studies that lay out a map of possible long-term strategies of Russian agroindustry adaptive development. The Foresight methodology applied in this study is customized to better fit the practical purposes of the study.

The purpose of this paper is to delineate the evolution of agricultural science and technology (S&T) in China in the last three decades as it has been one of the major factors, besides others, in ensuring comfortable levels of global food security. In doing so, it focuses on policy and progress, which have provided the right ambience for Chinese agricultural science and technology to evolve into an effective instrument of development.

The study employs institutional approach to government, scientists and farmers, who have been contributing to the growth of Chinese agricultural technology in two distinct ways. While the government has been playing a critical role in evolving a comprehensive agricultural S&T policy, scientists and farmers have been contributing to the progress of agricultural growth through research and application of various agricultural technologies.

Agricultural S&T in China has increasingly been growing into a potent force in facilitating comfortable levels of food security but with serious implications on the environment. Of the three players who have been instrumental in this process, the Chinese Government and the scientists are well prepared for WTO and globalization vis‐à‐vis agricultural technology, but the farmers are not well positioned.

Agricultural S&T development in China is critically important not only for Chinese food security but also for the larger global food and human security, as the two are inextricably connected. While most studies focus on various dimensions of agricultural technology, this study focuses on government, scientists and involved farmers, whose role is central to this process, and who are forced to rethink and reposition themselves in the development and use of agricultural S&T in China.

One of the major changes associated with economic globalization is the increasing importance of intellectual property. In the area of food production, the procurement of intellectual property rights over life forms, particularly seeds, by the new life industry is radically transforming agricultural production relations. One major effect of this transformation is the redefinition of farmers as contract growers by the life industry. This new status of farmers, which is part of a trend that was set in motion with the commodification of food, is making them free‐lancing quasi‐employees of agricultural businesses, including the life industry.

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are a consolidated reality. While consumers are opposed to the introduction of GMOs in Italy, little or nothing is known about the companies’ attitude. For this reason, this work is focused on companies. This research aims to understand the problems, the possible solutions and the opinions of farms on the role of GMOs to arrive at a judgement based on the representation of various positions.

This paper was made possible thanks to a direct survey on the field. In particular, the work provides a significant number of interviews directed to livestock farms; a logical sequence of questions that allow you to understand the attitude and the willingness of companies and if there is a future propensity to transgenic cultivation; and the creation of an ad hoc analysis on the behaviour of farmers.

Thematic analysis revealed that GMOs are the only valid research to the advancement of agriculture, able to guarantee our companies productivity improvements. This technique could solve many problems related to agriculture, such as the possibility of future saving on crops.

There is a lot of research on GMOs. The research behind this paper is different, because it is a research carried out throughout all the country, from the point of view of businesses.