How will the mega-mergers of Dow Chemicals and Dupont, Bayer and Monsanto and Syngenta and China National Chemical Corp. — ChemChina, for short — affect the incomes and livelihoods of farmers in the “global south”?
Immediately and directly, not much, according to several agriculture and development experts. The Big Six multinationals operate in a commercial agriculture market for farming inputs that, for now, is still out of reach for most smallholder farmers.
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At their core, the industry megamergers are about achieving breakthrough innovations, many of which can work their way into rural agriculture…
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The development of new GMO technologies… could have a significant impact on smallholder farming. As chemical companies expand their footprints in developing countries, GMO product lines … can… eventually trickle down to the smallholder level. With that could come potentially large changes to the price of seeds, farming techniques, crop yields and, ultimately, farmer incomes.
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Apart from South Africa, countries in Africa do not have officially approved policies that sanction GMO food crops. But a potential billion-person Chinese export market could tilt national policies in favor of GMO-based agriculture.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: Will big agriculture mergers impact smallholder farmers?
