|
Research
Food needs will continue to expand in developing countries
in the future. In the past, such needs have been met by both
expanding the area under cultivation and increasing productivity
on the land in production. Most areas of the world have placed
their good land under cultivation, which means that they will
either have to expand on poorer land or further increase the
productivity of the land that they have in production. Increasing
productivity is by far the more promising route both in terms
of cost and minimizing environmental disruption. But increasing
productivity requires new knowledge – both to maintain
yields and to improve the quantity and quality of production.
The needed knowledge is primarily biological in nature, but
also includes the social sciences.
The primary mechanism for generating new or additional agricultural
knowledge is organized and structured research. While building
on scientific knowledge, such efforts must also give attention
to indigenous farmer knowledge. Because of (1) certain common
problems that exist in many countries and (2) the wide variety
of growing conditions throughout the world and even within
countries, agricultural research must be carried out at several
levels; global, regional, national, and state/ province. The
challenge is to sort out the tasks to be done and to handle
them at the most appropriate level. Some problems, especially
requiring fairly sophisticated science, might more efficiently
be done in centralized laboratories; others are more closely
related to field practices and can be more decentralized.
This variation requires corresponding flexibility in funding
mechanisms, which is not always present.
In the case of developing countries, about 95% of the funding
spent on agricultural research in the past has been at the
national or sub-national level. Much of this, especially in
the poorer nations, and particularly in Africa, has been provided
by outside donors such as USAID. Less than 5% has been carried
out at the international or global level. Virtually all of
the research has been in the public sector, but the private
sector is becoming more important in the more advanced developing
nations. Global agricultural research, even though it represents
a small portion of overall funding and even smaller portion
of research staff, has proven to be a very efficient and effective
way of not only carrying out research (particularly in the
area of genetic resources and plant variety improvement),
but providing scientific leadership and encouragement to national
programs.
The Agency supports agricultural and environmental related
research in 3 main ways.
- For the past thirty years, the most important organizational
vehicle for conducting global/international/regional research
has been the Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research (CGIAR). The CGIAR is an informal group of donors
(about 60 at present) which has its headquartered at the
World Bank in Washington. It sponsors 16 international research
centers distributed throughout the world (13 in developing
countries) which cover a wide array of basic food commodities
and natural resource issues. In addition, the CGIAR is currently
sponsoring a Challenge Program which is designed to tackle
problems of global and regional importance and that bring
a wide variety of researchers together. A small number of
other international research centers outside of the CGIAR
also carry out important related work. The CGIAR itself
basically represents a multilateral activity, but has always
had a bilateral dimension in that the centers have taken
on special projects that are usually national in nature.
In either case, the emphasis is on producing public goods
that are freely available to all.
- Since 1978, USAID has supported research, education,
and outreach through the Collaborative Research Support
Programs (CRSP). The CRSPs harness the expertise of U.S.
universities in low-cost, high-impact programs that contribute
knowledge, trained personnel, and technology to agriculture
worldwide in the fight against hunger and poverty. The nine
CRSP programs funded by USAID and other collaborating organization
focus research upon crops, including beans and cowpeas,
sorghum and millet, and peanuts; broadening access to factors
and strengthening input systems; livestock; integrated pest
management; pond dynamics and aquaculture; soil management;
and sustainable agriculture and natural resources management.
CRSP programs help build national agricultural research
capacity in developing countries as well as benefit American
agriculture. CRSP programs embody the mutual dependence
of research, outreach, and training, in which training is
integrated with research, and applied solutions require
outreach.
-
The Agency also funds research grant programs to promote
development-focused technical cooperation among Middle
Eastern countries, and the utilization of U.S. and Israeli
expertise by developing countries. The Middle East Regional
Cooperation (MERC) Program and the U.S.-Israel Cooperative
Development Research (CDR) Program both fund competitively
reviewed, applied research projects. CDR supports joint
research projects involving U.S. and Israeli scientists
working with counterparts in developing countries in Africa,
Asia, and Latin America on topics relevant to the needs
of the developing-country partners. MERC supports development
in the Middle East via projects that involve direct Arab-Israeli
cooperation. Developing-country institutions receive a
substantial share of the funds from each of the nearly
100 CDR and MERC grants for the training of scientists,
laboratory equipment, and other capacity-strengthening
measures. These research programs are open to nearly all
relevant technical topics and have produced advances in
saline and arid lands agriculture, enhanced understanding
of emerging diseases and other threats to human health,
improved water management technology, advances in biological
pest management, and improved systems for natural resources
and wildlife management.
Back to Top ^
|