Investing in global agri-R&D also ‘benefits donor countries’

[SYDNEY] Investment in international agricultural research and development (R&D) not only increases the capacity of lower-income countries to tackle food insecurity and manage natural resources but also brings significant returns to donor countries like Australia, says a study commissioned by the Crawford Fund.

The study makes a case for increasing the proportion of the development assistance budget allocated to international agricultural R&D. “Collaborative research is a two-way learning. Both the recipient and donor countries benefit from the exchange of knowledge, insights, science and technical ideas,” says Neil Byron, lead author of the study launched on 1 December in Canberra.

Currently, only 2.5 per cent of Australia’s aid budget goes to agriculture R&D. “All the evidence suggests that we are seriously underinvesting. We can easily double or triple the [agriculture R&D] aid because the benefits — social, economic and environmental payoffs — are so much greater than the costs,” says Byron, director of Alluvium Consulting Pty Ltd. which prepared the report for the Crawford Fund.

There had been a US$10 return on every dollar invested in R&D undertaken by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) over the past 50 years, a 2020 assessment report found. It argued that investment in agricultural research must be strengthened to create a more resilient and sustainable future.

“Support from OECD countries is not just about using aid money effectively in a financial sense, but it’s aimed at food security, poverty alleviation, and improving the health and wellbeing of women and children. The most effective programmes are those where the local people — small landholder farmers, ethnic minorities and indigenous people — are in the driving seat and have ownership of the R&D project,” Byron tells SciDev.Net.

“Support from OECD countries is not just about using aid money effectively in a financial sense, but it’s aimed at food security, poverty alleviation, and improving the health and wellbeing of women and children. The most effective programmes are those where the local people — small landholder farmers, ethnic minorities and indigenous people — are in the driving seat and have ownership of the R&D project”

Neil Byron, Alluvium Consulting Pty Ltd.

Elizabeth Pisiai, a cocoa farmer from Kikimogu village in the Buin district of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea, was one of the initial small farmers chosen for the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)-supported Bougainville cocoa value chain project.

She says, “In our village, which has more than 2,000 households of mainly smallholder subsistence farmers, we have been following the farming practices passed on by our forefathers, but this training has equipped me with the knowledge and skills to improve cocoa quality and yield and make it more sustainable.”

“Since the project started, the cocoa yield has increased five times and income is approximately 25 to 50 per cent more, depending on the harvest. Besides cocoa, I am now earning income from garden vegetables and animal husbandry. It has improved the overall wellbeing of our young family,” says Pisiai, who is the project’s South Bougainville Regional Hub coordinator.

The study cited research from a 2020 World Bank report showing that an increase in agricultural productivity in developing countries reduces poverty by twice as much as a comparable increase in productivity in other sectors of the economy.

Pisiai has been training other cocoa farmers in men and women’s shared roles and responsibilities, and assisting them to plan, set goals, communicate and make decisions as a family. “My husband is very supportive. When this project ends, I would like to be my own boss in our cocoa farms and create job opportunities for youths in my village,” she tells SciDev.Net.

The study notes that investment in international agricultural R&D helps donor countries like Australia gain practical knowledge of how to improve the productivity of different crops in different climatic and agri-ecological conditions.

“One of the lessons that we learned from working in Africa is how to manage extreme environmental variability — droughts and floods. Similarly, we have gained a lot of the technological knowhow for growing pulses and lentils through research collaborations from either the sub-continent or the Middle East,” Byron says.

Collaborative research also strengthens biosecurity in donor countries. “We are able to study how to prevent, control and prepare for potential pests and diseases to flora and fauna before they reach recipient countries. For example, Australian scientists have been collaborating with Brazil on studying pathogens that have the potential to wipe out eucalyptus trees; and with India and Thailand on research into major horticultural crops, such as mangoes,” he adds.

“Agriculture R&D aid is beneficial for developing countries. We have used some results from research projects in our government policies and they have been especially useful in devising the legal framework on agriculture and food security,” says Somvang Phimmavong, deputy director-general in the Department of Forestry in the Lao PDR Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

“However, it is important that developed countries turn scientific results into pilot projects on the ground so that developing countries can learn and scale up the successful model in other places,” Phimmavong tells SciDev.Net.

This piece was produced by SciDev.Net’s Asia & Pacific desk.