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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.
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