3.4 Incentives for the Conservation of PGRFA
61
propagated crops. For other crop species, e.g., with recalcitrant seeds, perennial
species, and species with long life cycles less than 1A ha are necessary26 (Bticken,
1997). These requirements are necessary because of the plant population dynamics
and in order to keep the genetic variation broad. For safety reasons it may be
assumed that each traditional variety may be planted in average on 1,OOOm 2 and on
10 to 50 farms so that crop failure on one farm does not risk the variety's
conservation. Therefore, the total amount of the absolutely vital area necessary to
conserve one traditional variety of any crop species would be less than 5 hectares.
Fig. 3.4. PGRFA conservation between private and social benefit
MB
MC
MB p.n
qn
Note: Me: marginal costs; MB: marginal benefit
Me, ! Mep: marginal costs on national! private level
MBp.: marginal benefit on private and national level
MCn
area under one
traditional variety
Because of this minimum safety standard (MSS), the country's conservation
objective could be fulfilled with the minimum area requirement at gn in Fig. 3.4.
More area under the specific traditional variety will increase the social marginal
costs of the in situ conservation in a specific country. In contrast to the country's
optimal area need, the farmers - according to their individual optima - utilize far
26
For instance, the area requirement for maize is 60 m' and for wheat only 0.75 m'.