Ag research and economic development oecd

OECD, Paris | 28 March 2012

AGRICULTURAL R&D AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTTracking agricultural R&D investments and capacitiesin developing countries

Nienke Beintema and Gert-Jan StadsASTI program | International Food Policy Research Institute

Outline presentation

• Why track agricultural R&D indicators?

• A short overview of ASTI

• Some of ASTI’s key findings

• Linkages and complementarities with OECD

Agricultural R&D is crucial to food security

• Extensive evidence demonstrates that agricultural R&D has greatly contributed to agricultural development, economic growth, and poverty reduction (World Development Report 2008; International Assessment for Agricultural S&T for Development 2010)

• But… given the central role of food in human welfare and national stability, it is shocking how little money is spent on agricultural research globally (Bill Gates 2012)

• Greatly increased institutional, human, and financial resources are needed to address global food production challenges (2010 Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development—GCARD roadmap)

Importance of agricultural R&D indicators (1)

• Agricultural R&D is a long-term commitment requiring sufficient and sustained funding for well-functioning R&D agencies

• Stakeholders need to be able to identify trends in agricultural R&D investments and capacity, as well as gaps and neglected areas to set future investment priorities, and to better coordinate and harmonize research

• R&D indicators are essential to measure, monitor, and benchmark the inputs, outputs, and performance of agricultural R&D systems

• Key to understanding the contribution of agricultural R&D to agricultural productivity growth and economic growth

• Importance of S&T indicators has increasingly been recognized by policymakers (e.g., African Ministerial Conference on S&T, 2003)

• Recent initiatives on food security emphasize the need to track investments, including those in agricultural R&D (G8, G20, L’Aquila Food Security Initiative)

• This will require a sustainable and long-term commitment from national stakeholders, international organizations, and donors

Importance of agricultural R&D indicators (2)






Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI)

• Collection of national-level investment and human resource capacity data on agricultural R&D:– Focus on low– and middle–income

countries (coverage ± 60)– Through institutional survey rounds

(primary data)

• Through a large collaborative network of national, regional and international partners; facilitated by IFPRI

• Aim is to provide:– Trends over time at country / regional

levels; within countries– Comparisons across countries / regions;

within countries

Objectives of ASTI

• Provide up-to-date and high quality datasets on agricultural R&D investment, capacity, and institutional trends

• Conduct further analysis based on datasets to improve the relevance of ASTI to a variety of stakeholders

• Enhance the dissemination and use of ASTI outputs for policy formulation and advocacy

• Strengthen capacity for data collection and analysis and stimulate the use of ASTI as an information and analysis tool

• Need to establish an institutionalized data collection system at regular intervals

• Need to expand geographical coverage

• Need to expand analysis beyond the descriptive examination of national and regional capacity and investment trends.

• Focused on input indicators, not output, performance, and outcome indicators; covering research not the agricultural innovation system

• Building the capacity to improve long-term sustainability of ASTI, and increase the reach, advocacy, and policy relevance of the data

• Such a sustainable, broad system will need sustainable funding

ASTI’s Challenges

Challenge: Measuring R&D Outcomes/Impact

• Monitoring outcome/results of agricultural R&D investment has become increasingly important (accountability, especially of donor commitments)

• However, attributing a causal relationship between research inputs and outputs is challenging

• In the past, the focus has been mostly on ex-post return on investment assessments of successful technologies

• Measurement challenges:– Attribution problem– Output metrics difficult to define (bridge from output to outcome)– Unavailability of data and high costs of generating such data – Harmonization of M&E efforts: institutional, national, regional, global






Sub-Saharan Africa China

Rest of Asia-Pacific

Latin America-Caribbean

Middle East-North Africa

Eastern Europe-Former Soviet

High income

Global agricultural R&D spending

Total public spending =$25 billion (2005 PPPs, 2000)

Low- and middle income countries = 46%

High income countries = 54%

Updated global data for 2008 will be released later this year

Intensity of agricultural R&D investments (latest year available)

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

Braz

il

Chin

a

Indi

a

SSA

aver

age

Dev

elop

ing

Dev

elop

ed

Glo

bal

Agr

icul

tura

l R&

D s

pend

ing

as a

sha

re o

f AgG

DP

(%)

• Agricultural R&D has been the engine of productivity growth in China

• High growth in R&D spending is one of the main reasons why China outperforms India in agriculture

• High commitment to R&D of Chinese and Indian governments continues

• Commitment of Brazilian government to agricultural R&D has been high, albeit somewhat unsteady

• Role of private sector in agricultural R&D has substantially increased in all three countries

0.0

1.1

2.2

3.3

4.4

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

Tota

l pub

lic a

gricu

ltura

l R&D

spen

ding

(in b

illion

200

5 PP

P $)

R&D spending since 2000

China

Sub-Saharan Africa

India

Brazil

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

1971

1975

1979

1983

1987

1991

1995

1999

2003

2007

SSA

Agric

ultu

ral R

&D

spe

ndin

g(b

iilio

n 20

05 P

PP $

)

• Growth driven by only a few countries

• Growth not always sustainable

• Region-wide growth masks severe declines in many other (mainly francophone West African) countries

Africa’s investment challenge: Uneven growth

20% growth in SSA public agricultural R&D spending, 2000-08

Africa’s investment challenge: Underinvestment

• Common target: Allocation of at least 1 % of GDP to R&D• In 2008, Africa spent $0.61 for every $100 of AgGDP on

agricultural R&D• Despite an overall increase in recent years, Africa is widely

underinvesting in agricultural R&D

Africa’s investment challenge: volatility

0110220330440

1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005

01234

1991 1994 1997 2000 2003 2006

010203040

1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005

010203040

1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005

Agr

icul

tura

l R&

D sp

endi

ng (m

iilio

n 20

05 P

PP $

)

Burkina Faso

Nigeria

Gabon

Niger

• Agricultural R&D spending in Africa has been more volatile than in other regions

• Volatility more pronounced in donor-dependent low-income countries

• Stable and sustainable government funding is key, not just towards salaries but also to enable necessary nonsalary expenditures

0

20

40

60

80

100

Guin

eaEr

itrea

Ugan

daM

adag

asca

rBu

rkin

a Fa

soNi

ger

Mal

iBe

nin

Tanz

ania

Buru

ndi

Sene

gal

Mau

ritan

iaKe

nya

Gam

bia

Togo

Zam

bia

Côte

d'Iv

oire

Nam

ibia

Ghan

aSo

uth

Afric

aBo

tsw

ana

Mau

ritius

Shar

ein

tota

l fun

ding

, 200

1-0

8 (%

)

Africa’s investment challenge: donor dependency

Average donor share

Spread of donor share

• Many countries are extremely dependent on donor funding and development bank loans

• Donor funding is generally short-term and ad-hoc, adding to the volatility

• Increased funding from World Bank (loans) in recent years

Africa’s human capacity challenges

• Many countries face rapidly aging pools of scientists due to public sector recruitment restrictions

• Large influx of young BSc-qualified scientists after years of recruitment restrictions in some countries

• High staff turnover / brain drain: Many researchers have left agencies due to low salaries and conditions of service

• Limited in-country postgraduate training opportunities

• Female scientists severely underrepresented

• Small countries lack required critical mass of agricultural R&D capacity






• Developing countries do not operate in isolation; OECD countries have been a major source of agricultural technologies and new varieties

• In addition, universities in OECD countries still play an important role in training scientists from developing countries

• Consequently, investments in agricultural R&D in OECD countries have an important (indirect) impact on productivity growth in developing countries

• It is therefore important to closely monitor agricultural R&D spending in OECD countries

• However, quality of agricultural R&D indicators of OECD countries has deteriorated steadily over time

Linking ASTI data with OECD S&T data

Towards a truly global dataset…

Developing countries

CGIAR centers

OECD countries

Compiled by ASTI Compiled by OECD

Global dataset

Weak link

Weak Private sector data

• More attention to accountability of donor funding as well as more coordination across donors

• DAC data: incomplete information on donor contributions towards agricultural R&D; recent efforts to improve

• ASTI: role of donor funding from receiving country perspective

• Linking ASTI and DAC data will provide a more complete picture of donor contributions towards agricultural R&D in developing countries

Linking ASTI data with OECD DAC data

• Recognize the importance of agricultural R&D to food security, poverty reduction, and economic growth in developing countries

• Recognize the importance of global agricultural R&D indicators to policymakers, donors, and other stakeholders

• Recognize the need to improve agricultural R&D indicators for OECD and developing countries building on ongoing efforts (OECD S&T and DAC data, ASTI)

• Recognize the need to track results of investments (outcome/output indicators)

Linking ASTI and OECD

THANK YOU

Ag research and economic development oecd

Documents