< Supporting Agricultural Economics, Policy and Human Capital Research

The Problem

What social and economic impacts do publicly funded breeding programs have? Division of Agriculture researchers investigated the impact of the Arkansas rice breeding program.

The Research

Dr. Lanier Nalley was the corresponding author of “Estimating the Benefits of Public Plant Breeding Programs,” published in the Journal of Agricultural Economics and co-authored by Drs. Karen Moldenhauer and Alvaro Durand-Morat.

The co-authors examined the broader effects of public plant breeding programs, in terms of social and economic impacts. The study looks specifically at increases in revenue, total exports and the global welfare effects derived from the Division of Agriculture’s rice breeding program, based on data from 1983-2016.

Efforts to increase rice yields have helped to feed larger numbers of people in low-income countries, where much of the population spends a majority of its disposable income on food. Through higher global grain stocks and competition, overall food prices have decreased in many of these areas.

The Bottom Line

The study found that the genetic gains provided by the rice breeding program increased both the yield and quality of rice crops, providing growers with an additional $31 million in revenue annually. It was also found to have increased rice exports by about 53,000 metric tons annually and lowered food costs in low-income countries.

The Researcher