TY  - BK
AU  - Morris,M.L.
AU  - Smale,M.
TI  - Organization and performance of national maize seed industries: a new institutionalist perspective
T2  - CIMMYT Economics Working Paper
PY  - 1997///
CY  - Mexico
PB  - CIMMYT, 
KW  - Economic analysis
KW  - AGROVOC
KW  - Innovation adoption
KW  - Maize
KW  - Production policies
KW  - Seed production
N1  - Open Access
N2  - This paper proposes a conceptual framework for analyzing the organization and performance of national maize seed industries. The authors begin by reviewing what several leading economic paradigms have to say about the suitability of different types of organizations for carrying out production and distribution activities. Next, they describe key attributes of seed that make it different from most other goods. They then review the findings of several recent country case studies which suggest that as national maize seed industries develop, they pass through predicable stages of growth that can be characterized as an industrial life-cycle. The authors conclude by discussing the policy implications of this findings, paying particular attention to the evolving roles of the players that make up the industry. At successive stages in the seed industry life-cycle, different combinations of organizations (and different sets of supporting institutions) will be most efficient at producing needed goods and services. Organizational and institutional change is thus a normal and indeed necessary feature of seed industry development. Within a given country, at the same point in time different segments of seed market will usually be at different stages of development. This suggests the need for heterogenous maize seed industries in which different organizations and institutions serve different groups of growers
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10883/951
ER  -