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Throughout the 20th century, improvements in agricultural productivity have considerably alleviated poverty and starvation and fueled economic progress. However, significant numbers of developing countries, especially in Africa, continue to face serious funding and institutional constraints that inhibit the effectiveness of local research and development (R&D). In addition, the shifting scientific orientation of rich-country research, combined with changing biosafety and intellectual property regimes internationally, suggests that the technology spillover pathways of the past may not carry forward, even to the near future. Together, these factors may spell serious food deficits for some developing countries.

Two recent IFPRI publications draw attention to this matter: a food policy report entitled Agricultural Research: A Growing Global Divide?, by Philip G. Pardey, Nienke Beintema, Steven Dehmer, and Stanley Wood; and a book entitled Agricultural R&D in the Developing World: Too Little,Too Late?, edited by Philip G. Pardey, Julian M. Alston, and Roley R. Piggott.

The authors of the food policy report found a global bifurcation in the conduct of agricultural R&D: a few developing countries are showing signs of approaching the levels and intensity of agricultural R&D investment typically found in rich countries, while a large number of developing countries are stalling or slipping in the same regard.They conclude that increasing the amount spent on agricultural R&D in low-income countries that are heavily reliant on agriculture is likely to be a wise, but difficult, investment given the pressing demands on the cash-strapped governments in these economies.

According to the book, another problem is that a slower-growing, stagnant, or shrinking public agricultural research pot is increasingly being diverted away from the traditional agenda toward other objectives such as environmental concerns and food quality and safety issues. Given this scenario, who, then, will do the research required to generate sustenance for a growing world population when virtually all the population growth in the near future will occur in the poorer parts of the world? The authors say that developing countries may have to become more self-reliant and perhaps more dependent on one another in terms of agricultural R&D and technology.