the GlobalChangeBiology blog

Background. The implementation of hybrid Bt cotton unique to India has been heralded as a grand success by government agencies, seed companies and other proponents, and yet yields have stagnated at low levels and production costs have risen 2.5–3-fold. The low-yield hybrid cotton system of India contributes thousands of farmer suicides to the annual national toll. Conceptual and methodological barriers have hindered bioeconomic analysis of the ecological and social sustainability of such cross-scale agro-ecological problems in time and geographic space, under global technology and climate change. As a paradigm shift, we use conceptually simple, parameter-sparse, theoretically based, mechanistic, weather-driven physiologically based demographic models (PBDMs) to deconstruct the bio-economics of the Indian cotton system. Results. Our analysis of Indian hybrid cotton system explains some extant ecological and economic problems, and suggests a viable solution. Specifically, the model accur...

In light of the recently developed European Union (EU) Biofuels Strategy, we reviewed the literature to examine: (1) the coherency of biofuel production with the EU non-industrial vision of agriculture, and (2) given its insufficient landbase, the implications of a proposed bio-energy pact to grow biofuel crops in the developing world to meet EU biofuel demands. The EU acknowledged that the use of food crops for biofuel production was based on wrong assumptions concerning climate change mitigation, and its support has now shifted to second generation nonfood crops. The bio-energy pact entails: (1) biofuel crops production in developing countries, especially Africa that in the absence of environmental and social regulations may lead to ethical trade-offs in land use (food vs. fuel); and (2) the use of transgenic technology that conflicts with the EU’s own vision of sustainable agriculture. Ponti L., Gutierrez A.P., 2009. Overview on biofuels from a European perspective. Bulletin of Sc...