Agricultural values of plant generic resources

摘要

This book derives from a 1996 symposium on the Economics of Valuation and Conservation of Genetic Resources for Agriculture, co-sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization's Economic and Social Department, and the Tor Vergata University of Rome. The book has an Introduction by the editors and five parts. In the Introduction, the authors survey the dimensions of the genetic conservation problem within an economic framework, noting that (neoclassical?) 'economists agree on a utilitarian approach to valuing genetic resources' (p. 6). Within this framework, extinction costs, genetic uniformity and diversity, substitutability between species and higher orders of classification, and existing conservation activities are discussed. The chapter concludes with a survey of non-market valuation methods, and their application to genetic resources. The four chapters in Part I, 'Modelling the Role of Genetic Resources in Plant Breeding', are generally mathematical treatments of the plant breeding process (separate chapters by Evenson, and Simpson and Sedjo) and investing in biodiversity (Cooper), and a conceptual paper (Swanson, which partly covers similar material to the Introduction).