Seed Provision & Agricultural Development: The Institutions of Rural Change

Many of the current controversies over globalization, intellectual property protection, biotechnology and the future of farming are played out in the arena of seed provision. This book provides a detailed look at the strengths and weaknesses of seed management in traditional farming systems and reviews the history of formal plant breeding and the origins of the seed trade. It also examines the role of the public and private sectors in the contemporary seed systems of industrialized and developing countries.The examples in this book are drawn from original research in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The result is a comprehensive picture of seed provision that allows the reader to go beyond the oversimplified views that dominate debates about agricultural development.