1. AGRICULTURAL R&D AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Tracking agricultural R&D investments and capacities
in developing countries
Nienke Beintema and Gert-Jan Stads
ASTI program | International Food Policy Research Institute
OECD, Paris | 28 March 2012

2. Outline presentation
• Why track agricultural R&D indicators?
• A short overview of ASTI
• Some of ASTI’s key findings
• Linkages and complementarities with OECD

3. 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)

4. 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

5. Importance of agricultural R&D indicators (2)
• 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

6. Outline presentation
• Why track agricultural R&D indicators?
• A short overview of ASTI
• Some of ASTI’s key findings
• Linkages and complementarities with OECD

7. 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

8. 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

9. ASTI’s Challenges
• 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

10. 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

11. Outline presentation
• Why track agricultural R&D indicators?
• A short overview of ASTI
• Some of ASTI’s key findings
• Linkages and complementarities with OECD

12. Global agricultural R&D spending
Total public spending = Intensity of agricultural R&D
$25 billion (2005 PPPs, 2000) investments (latest year available)
2.5
Agricultural R&D spending as a share of AgGDP (%)
Low- and middle income
Sub-Saharan countries = 46%
Africa 2.0
China
Rest of Asia- 1.5
Pacific
Latin 1.0
America-
Caribbean
High income 0.5
Middle East-
Eastern
North Africa
Europe-
High income Former
0.0
SSA average
Brazil
Developing
India
Developed
Global
China
countries = 54% Soviet
Updated global data for 2008 will be
released later this year

13. R&D spending since 2000
• Agricultural R&D has been the engine
4.4
of productivity growth in China
• High growth in R&D spending is one
spending (in billion 2005 PPP $)
China
Total public agricultural R&D
3.3
of the main reasons why China
India
outperforms India in agriculture
2.2 • High commitment to R&D of Chinese
and Indian governments continues
Sub-Saharan Africa
1.1 • Commitment of Brazilian government
Brazil to agricultural R&D has been high,
albeit somewhat unsteady
0.0
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
• Role of private sector in agricultural
R&D has substantially increased in all
three countries

14. Africa’s investment challenge: Uneven growth
20% growth in SSA public agricultural
R&D spending, 2000-08
2.0 • Growth driven by only
a few countries
SSA Agricultural R&D spending
1.5
• Growth not always
sustainable
(biilion 2005 PPP $)
1.0
• Region-wide growth
masks severe declines
in many other (mainly
0.5
francophone West
African) countries
0.0
1971
1979
1983
1987
1991
1995
1999
2003
1975
2007

15. 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

16. Africa’s investment challenge: volatility
40 Burkina Faso
• Agricultural R&D spending in
30
20 Africa has been more volatile
Agricultural R&D spending (miilion 2005 PPP $)
10
0 than in other regions
1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005
440
330
Nigeria • Volatility more pronounced in
220
110
donor-dependent low-income
0
1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005
countries
4
3
Gabon
• Stable and sustainable
2
1 government funding is key,
0
1991 1994 1997 2000 2003 2006 not just towards salaries but
40
30
Niger
also to enable necessary
20
10 nonsalary expenditures
0
1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005

17. Africa’s investment challenge: donor dependency
• Many countries are
100 extremely dependent
Share in total funding, 2001-08 (%)
on donor funding and
80
development bank
Spread of
60 donor share loans
• Donor funding is
40
generally short-term
20
Average donor
share
and ad-hoc, adding to
the volatility
0
• Increased funding
Madagascar
Togo
Mauritania
Eritrea
Benin
Tanzania
Zambia
Mauritius
Namibia
Senegal
Gambia
Mali
Kenya
Niger
Côte d'Ivoire
Burundi
Uganda
Botswana
Burkina Faso
South Africa
Ghana
Guinea
from World Bank
(loans) in recent years

18. 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

19. Outline presentation
• Why track agricultural R&D indicators?
• A short overview of ASTI
• Some of ASTI’s key findings
• Linkages and complementarities with OECD

20. Linking ASTI data with OECD S&T data
• 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

21. Towards a truly global dataset…
Developing OECD countries
countries
Weak Private
sector data
Compiled by ASTI Compiled by OECD
Weak link
CGIAR centers Global dataset

22. Linking ASTI data with OECD DAC 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

23. Linking ASTI and OECD
• 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)

24. THANK YOU