The Role of Multinational Corporations in the Supply of Agricultural Production Technology to China & India

• Published date: 01 March 2018
• Date: 01 March 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.18278/wfp.4.2.3

19

e Role of Multinational Corporations

in the Supply of Agricultural Production

Technology to China & India

Carl Pray, Latha Nagarajan and Anwar Naseem1

A

Policy makers in Asia have long struggled with the challenge of how

to access agricultural technology from multinational corporations

(MNCs)while protecting their farmers and food and input indus-

tries from excess market power. is paper describes the pathways

by which farmers can access technology and research capacity from

foreign rms. en it examines some of the policies that India and

Chinese governments have used to encourage access. e recent

history of research and technology transfer to these countries is re-

viewed to do a preliminary assessment of how these policies work.

India has had a much more liberal policy on foreign investment in

recent years which resulted in more access to MNC research and

technology. So far, however, there are no studies that show this pol-

icy led to higher benets to farmers or lower costs of transferring

technology. Studies of benets and costs of these policies could be

very useful to Indian and Chinese policy makers.

Keywords: Foreign direct investment, agricultural technology,

technology transfer, industrial policy, agricultural research.

El papel de las corporaciones multinacionales en

el suministro de tecnología de producción

agrícola China e India

R

Los responsables de la formulación de políticas en Asia han lucha-

do durante mucho tiempo con el desafío de cómo acceder a la tec-

nología agrícola de las corporaciones multinacionales (CMN) al

tiempo que protegen a sus agricultores y las industrias de alimen-

1 Rutgers University

doi: 10.18278/wfp.4.2.3

World Food Policy • Vol. 4, No. 2 / Spring 2018