ASTI global assessment of agricultural RD spending: Developing countries accelerate investment

Abstract

(IFPRI) was established in 1975 to identify and analyze alternative national and international strategies and policies for meeting food needs of the developing world on a sustainable basis, with particular emphasis on low-income countries and on the poorer groups in those countries. While the research effort is geared to the precise objective of contributing to the reduction of hunger and malnutrition, the factors involved are many and wide-ranging, requiring analysis of underlying processes and extending beyond a narrowly defined food sector. The Institute's research program reflects worldwide collaboration with governments and private and public institutions interested in increasing food production and improving the equity of its distribution.

Redistributive innovation policy, inequality, and efficiency

“…In contrast, in most of the developing world, a significant amount of public R&D investments are made in agriculture, a low‐tech sector dominated by small‐scale farmers. Beintema, Stads, Fuglie, and Heisey () report an accelerated public investment in agricultural R&D in developing countries during the period 2000 and 2008. Using provincial data in China spanning more than four decades, Zhang and Fan () argue that government spending on agricultural R&D contributed to a reduction in regional inequality.…”

“…The average annual agricultural R&D spending growth in SSA countries, for instance, increased from 0.3% during 1981–1990 to 2.8% during 2000–2008 except for a small dip of 0.01% during 1990–2000, which is indicative of the bulk of recent R&D innovations in SSA being progressive in nature (Beintema et al, ).…”

Understanding the selection processes of public research projects in agriculture: The role of scientific merit

“…Global public research and development (R&D) expenditure towards agriculture grew only modestly in the 1990s, and increased by 22% during the period 2000-2008, with substantial increases in China and India accounting for close to half of this global increase. On the other hand, the growth rate of public agricultural R&D investments slowed down between 2000-2008 for high-income countries (Beintema et al, 2012), even though their research intensity ratio (i.e. agricultural spending relative to agricultural gross domestic product) had been increasing steadily since the early 1980s 2 .…”

“…In the European Union (EU) public agricultural research funding has been progressively linked to regional policy, especially via rural development measures (Labarthe and Laurent, 2013). Therefore, given that the rate of public support for agricultural research in developed countries grows slowly (Alston et al, 1998;Beintema et al, 2012;Pardey et al, 2006;Pardey and Beintema, 2001;Spielman and von Grebmer, 2004), understanding how regional public authorities select and fund agricultural research projects is becoming a key issue for policymakers and researchers alike (Huffman and Evenson, 2006a;Huffman and Evenson, 2006b;Huffman and Just, 1994, 1999a. 1 While in developing economies the majority of R&D expenditure originates from public sources, in developed economies private contributions to agricultural R&D are predominant (Piesse et al, 2010).…”

“…However, in these economies public funds are still a relevant source of support for agricultural R&D activities, especially towards more fundamental research (Piesse et al, 2010). 2 Beintema et al (2012) present a detailed assessment of public agricultural R&D spending at the global level, suggesting that 2008 is the latest year for which sufficiently reliable data are available.…”