This study examines the potential impact of changes in the public/private sector balance for biotechnology development and diffusion in developing country agriculture. It focuses on biotechnology related to two important developing country crops: rice and cocoa.

The study highlights the differences in the ways in which research on the two crops is organised, at both national and international level, in the financial and scientific resources devoted to research and in the public and private actors involved. It stresses the need for government intervention in setting national research priorities and for innovative institutional arrangements — including public/private sector collaboration — in situations where public research funding has been reduced or is increasingly scarce ...