Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
For example, we did not obtain counts of new crop varieties released
(a reliable indicator of crop research output) due to the difficulty in compiling
a relatively complete dataset with wide global coverage from publicly
available sources.
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The most complete data in this case might be that for European varietal
registration, but linking named varieties with holders of plant variety
protection rights would be extremely difficult. In the world's largest seed
market, the United States, data are available for varieties with plant varietal
protection certificates, varieties with utility patents, and varieties submitted for
cultivar registration, but these data are both overlapping and nonuniversal in
coverage.
The indicators reported here include the number of (1) agricultural
biotechnology patents
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issued in the United States, (2) petitions and
notifications to USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
(USDA/APHIS) to import, transport across State lines, or release into the
environment GM crops in the United States, (3) global approvals for planting
or environmental release of GM crops, and (4) acres (multiplied by the number
of traits per acre to get “trait-acres”) planted to GM crops worldwide. These
indicators are undoubtedly influenced by research investments, but the
relationships are likely to be nonlinear and may change over time.
We summarize these data by showing the shares of select output held by a
particular company or institution (see table 2.4). Those shares assigned to the
eight listed seed companies include assignments to their historical counter-
parts, acquisitions (e.g., “legacy companies”), and subsidiaries. The counts for
each indicator are cumulative (summed over several years) and therefore
indicative of the overall dominance of the firm or institution in the market for
seed and biotechnology innovations. But the indicators do not reflect changes
in the relative market position of the firms or institutions over time. For
example, patent counts are the total issued to a firm between 1982 and 2007 in
the case of patents for crop cultivars, and between 1976 and 2000 for other
classes of agricultural biotechnology patents (described below). The counts of
USDA/APHIS petitions and notifications are the number issued since 1985,
when USDA/APHIS first began issuing permits regulating the use and move-
ment of GM seed, through mid-2008.
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