Bio-innovation and Poverty Alleviation: Case Studies from Asia

Description

The proposed volume attempts to understand how forms of bio-innovation might be linked to the problem of poverty and its reduction through an inquiry into a number of empirical cases of present-day bio-innovations in Asia. Conditions and circumstances in countries like Cambodia, China, India, Korea, Nepal, Philippines, and Thailand are quite different and provide a mosaic of varied experiences in bio-innovation that include shrimp farming, GMO cotton, bio gas, organic farming, and vaccines. Offering important insights into various forms of bio-innovation efforts and their effects on poverty alleviation, this volume is divided into three major themes that organize the main sections of the book―benefits for the poor: actual, direct, and prospective benefits for the poor; absence of positive impacts and institutional constraints; pro-poor drivers and embedding in anti-poverty alleviation. The central questions addressed here are: • Ways and circumstances in which certain forms of bio-innovations affect the poor and enable poverty alleviation.  • Critical factors and conditions for improving the positive impact of bio-innovations on poverty alleviation. • Poverty alleviation goals should be the point of departure in rationalizing, identifying and designing appropriate and relevant bio-innovation programs. Cover Contents Introduction Part 1 - Actual, Direct,and Prospective Benefits for the Poor 1 - Biosand Water Filter and Poor Households in the Philippines 2 - Bio-innovation in Edible Mushroom Industry and Poverty Alleviation in China 3 - Commercialization of Aqua culture in Nepal: Understanding Its Gender Implications 4 - Improved Vegetable Production in Northern Thailand: Is the Innovation Pro-poor and Gender Sensitive? 5 - ‘Lazy Garden’ Innovation as a Resilience-building Strategy Part 2 - Absence of Positive Impacts and Institutional Constraints 6 - Shrimp Probiotics, Social Differentiation, and Shrimp Farmers in Vietnam 7 - Biochar Stoves: An Innovation Studies Perspective 8 - Vaccine R&D in Thailand: Meeting Public Health Needs through Collective IPR Management 9 - Biogas Program and Its Impact on the Poor in Vietnam 10 - Harnessing Poverty Alleviation Potential of Biofertilizer in the Philippines Part 3 - Pro-poor Drivers and Embeddingin Anti-poverty Alleviation 11 - Knowing Earth and Sky:The Transmission of Knowledge in Natural Farming in Chiang Mai Province 12 - Changing Trends of Bio-innovation in Pharmaceutical Industry: Inclusion and Exclusion of Poor 13 - Bt Cotton in China: Implications for the Rural Poor and Poverty Alleviation 14 - Biofertilizer-based Bio-innovation: Relevance to Poverty Welfare About the Editors and Contributors Index