Understanding the Evolution of Rice Technology in China – From Traditional Agriculture to GM Rice Today

Abstract

This paper provides an historical survey of the evolution of rice technology in China, from the traditional farming system to genetically modified rice today. Using sociotechnological analytical framework, it analyses rice technology as a socio-technical ensemble - a complex interaction of material and social elements, and discusses the specificity of technology development and its socio-technical outcomes. It points to two imperatives in rice variety development: wholesale transporting agricultural technology and social mechanism to developing countries are likely lead to negative consequences; indigenous innovation including deploying GM technology for seed varietal development and capturing/cultivating local knowledge will provide better solutions.

Towards a new approach for understanding interactions of technology with environment and society in small-scale rice farming.

“…Social facts are real but not necessarily material in constitution. explaining why China was the first country to develop hybrid rice (Shen, 2010). In India, many NGOs are involved in the promotion of new technologies, such as the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) (Glover, 2011).…”

Issues in the Political Economy of Agricultural Biotechnology

“…In July 2008, China's State Council approved a research initiative to launch a 20 billion RMB (approximately US$300m) programme for GM crops (Shen, personal communication). Shen's research (forthcoming) makes a persuasive case for China leading in transgenic rice technology, with a range of transgenic varieties under trial. The Chinese government has placed considerable emphasis on the role of the public sector in biotechnology research, as Keeley (2006, quoted in Shen forthcoming) has summarized:…”

“…Shen (forthcoming) has noted that the controversies surrounding the GM debate have slowed down, perhaps even derailed, the adoption of GM rice in China. In response to the mounting international pressure from anti‐GM campaigners, the Chinese government established a biosafety technical committee (consisting only of scientists) under the Ministry of Agriculture.…”

Triple helix in the agricultural sector of Northeast Asian countries: a comparative study between Korea and China

“…For example, the Korean government endeavors to nurture the knowledge-based agricultural products industry with technical competency by investing over 50 billion dollars in R&D; the Chinese government has been steadily increasing its investments in biotechnology R&D, including agricultural biotechnology, since the 1980s (Shen 2010). Second, there are many technical, financial, and institutional barriers that hamper the development of the agriculture industry (Pretty et al 2002), and embedded social and economic institutional mechanisms in agricultural technologies play a crucial role (Shen 2010), particularly in emerging economies like Korea and China. Therefore, this industry is not an easy one to transform into a knowledge-intensive one.…”