| Summary: | It’s Not as Easy as 1, 2, 3… How much is a collection of plant genetic resources worth? Why do economists hesitate to place a value on it? Plant genetic resources generate economic value with multiple dimensions that are difficult to conceptualize. Only a few of these dimensions can be measured and related to a market price that is a basis for valuation. Scientific nuances complicate measurement. For example, the definition of the genetic unit to be valued depends on the crop and the farming-system context, and whether the units can be added together depends on how closely they resemble one another. Economics research, rather than accounting, is necessary to estimate the costs and benefits of the resources maintained in genebanks. Most genebanks have been publicly financed, and in the past there has been little demand by those who fund them to conduct economics research. Recently, however, demand for assessing the value of such collections appears to have heightened with changing intellectual property regimes and emerging biotechnology applications.
List of Briefs: 7. Introduction: A Taxonomy of Genebank Value / Melinda Smale and Bonwoo Koo; 8. Search Strategies and the Value of a Large Collection / Douglas Gollin, Melinda Smale, and Bent Skovmand; 9.The Marginal Value of an Accession / by Armineh Zohrabian, Greg Traxler, Steve Caudill, and Melinda Smale; 10. Strategies for Timely Evaluation of Genebank Accessions / by Bonwoo Koo and Brian D. Wright; 11. The Demand for Crop Genetic Resources from a National Collection / Kelly Day-Rubenstein and Melinda Smale; 12. The Demand for Crop Genetic Resources from International Collections / Cary Fowler, Melinda Smale, and Samy Gaiji.
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