ASSESSING RECENT AGRICULTURAL R&DSPENDING TRENDS GLOBALLY AND REGIONALLY

Nienke Beintema, ASTI/IFPRI

Pathway to ASTI Global Assessment on Agricultural R&D Spending

• ASTI collects primary data for low- and middle-income countries through national institutional survey rounds

• Spending patterns can be highly dynamic over time so global estimates need to be made with caution (2008 latest year of reliable data)

• In recent years ASTI focused on data collection for Africa south of the Sahara and South Asia

• With GFAR, AARINENA, APAARI, CACAARI, FORAGRO, and national partners ASTI collected additional data for other developing regions

• With USDA-ERS, using secondary sources, ASTI estimated spending trends for high-income countries and prepared ASTI-GFAR report (and infographic)

• See asti.cgiar.org/globaloverview for more information

Developing Countries Drive Spending Growth in Public Agricultural R&D

Regional Allocation of Public Spending, 2008

Agricultural R&D Spending Pays Off…….

…. But the World Poorest Countries Lag Behind

A Viable Monitoring System of Agricultural R&D Resource Levels

• Need to move from ad-hoc data collection to a sustainable monitoring system with regular updates (in place for Africa south of the Sahara and South Asia)

• Enhance ownership of the data and stimulate further advocacy and analysis at the national level

• Measure not only inputs (investments/capacity), but also output indicators required to assess performance of agricultural research institutions within and across countries

• Intensify further analysis of trends to make information more relevant for policymakers and other stakeholders

• Such a sustainable system needs sustainable funding