IFPRI Report

International Crop Research Aid: A Boon for the Poor and U.S. Farmers

For more than two decades, the United States has been an important contributor to the work of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), whose research has effectively reduced hunger and poverty in developing countries. New research now shows that in addition to increasing food production in the developing world, crop improvement research conducted by the CGIAR has earned substantial economic benefits for U.S. farmers and consumers.

"Hidden Harvest: U.S. Benefits from International Research Aid," an IFPRI Food Policy Report by Philip G. Pardey, Julian M. Alston, Jason E. Christian, and Shenggen Fan, uses wheat and rice to illustrate the gains from international research on important food crops. The study compares the investments made by the U.S. Agency for International Development in the CGIAR's International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) with the contributions those investments have made to U.S. farm production.

Crop improvement research at CIMMYT and IRRI has helped develop plants with many benefits, including higher yields, pest and disease resistance, and higher-quality grain. Varieties with CIMMYT and IRRI ancestry have been widely adopted by U.S. farmers. By the early 1990s, about one-fifth of the total U.S. wheat acreage was sown to varieties with CIMMYT ancestry. In 1993, nearly all of the California spring wheat crop was grown with varieties from CIMMYT or with CIMMYT-based ancestors. In the same year, nearly 9 percent of the acreage of the U.S. northern plains states was sown to varieties with CIMMYT ancestry. CGIAR varieties of winter wheat have also had a sizable influence on the crops grown in the central and southern plains states.

Around 73 percent of the total U.S. rice acreage in 1993 was sown to varieties with IRRI ancestry. Many of these new varieties have developed as IRRI germplasm has gradually found its way into locally bred varieties. IRRI rice varieties have been used primarily as parent stock in the development of medium- and long-grain, semidwarf rice varieties in California and the Mississippi Delta states.

The study team calculated the economic benefits that were due to CIMMYT and IRRI varieties and compared them with the corresponding costs. They found that the U.S. economy gained at least $3.4 billion and up to $13.7 billion from 1970 to 1993 from the use of improved wheat varieties developed by CIMMYT. Since U.S. government support of wheat improvement research at CIMMYT has amounted to less than $71 million since 1960, the benefit-cost ratio for U.S. government support of CIMMYT is as high as 190 to 1.

In the same 23-year period, the U.S. economy realized at least some $30 million and up to $1.0 billion through the use of improved rice varieties developed by IRRI. Total U.S. government support of IRRI has cost about $63 million, making the benefit-cost ratio for U.S. government contributions to IRRI as high as 17:1.