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September 2001
Liberalization of Peru's formal seed sector
Jeffery W.
Bentley (1), Robert Tripp (2) and Roberto Delgado de la Flor (3)
(1) Cochabamba, Bolivia
(2) Overseas Development Institute, London, UK
(3) Lima, Peru
Abstract
During the 1990s, the Government
of Peru began to aggressivelyprivatize agriculture. The
government stopped loaning money to farmers' cooperatives and
closed the government rice-buying company. The government even
rented out most of its researchstations and many senior
scientists lost their jobs. As part of this trend, the
government eliminated its seed certification agency. Instead,
private seed certification committees were set up with USAID
funding and technical advise from a US university. The
committees were supposed to become self-financing (bycertifying
seed grown by small seed producers) and each committee was
supposed to encourage the development of a group of small
seed-producing firms, clustered around the seedcertification
agency. The amazing thing is that many of the seed committees
actually accomplished these goals. The agronomists who staffed
the committees stood by their jobs,even after US funding ended,
even though the committees' income was (at best) modest, and
occasionally under the threat of violence from the extreme left.
Some seed certificationcommittees failed and others did not.
Some of the problems with Peruvian agricultural liberalization
can be seen in regard to the seed programs of maize, rice,
potatoes, and beans. For example, the government abandoned most
research, yet could not resist creating certain distortions in
the seed market (e.g.,buying large amounts of seed and
distributing them for political ends).
Full article:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/l2476n8p16185m27/ |
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