CRISPR Rice vs conventional rice dilemma of a Chinese farmer*

Abstract

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) technology for rice, which makes rice resistant to its two most destructive insect pests, is an alternative to insect-resistant genetically modified (GM) rice. We advance an economic framework to determine ex ante the planting share of CRISPR rice in China under uncertainty about pest severity and analyse its most significant factors. Using our baseline data and an assumption that yields of CRISPR rice are 10 per cent lower than conventional rice, we estimate the planting share of CRISPR rice to be 37.9 per cent. The mean of the annual benefit of growing CRISPR rice and conventional rice together over conventional rice alone is 2.32 billion US dollars.