Presentation of "Investment and Capacity Trends in Agricultural R&D: New Evidence for West Asia and North Africa" at the the Association of Agricultural Research Institutions in the Near East and North Africa (AARINENA) General Conference in Izmir, Turkey on October 1, 2014. Presented by Gert-Jan Stads, Senior Program Manager, of the Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI) initiative, led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington, D.C.

1. Investment and Capacity Trends in Agricultural R&D:
New Evidence for West Asia and North Africa
Gert-Jan Stads
International Food Policy Research Institute
g.stads@cgiar.org
AARINENA General Conference
Izmir, Turkey | 1 October 2014

2. WHY MONITOR AGRICULTURAL R&D RESOURCES?
• Challenges:
www.asti.cgiar.org
- Rapid population growth
- Climate change
- Degradation of land and water resources
- Food price volatility
• Agricultural R&D is a major contributor to
productivity growth, food security, and poverty
reduction
• Quantitative data are essential for stakeholders to
be able to analyze trends in agricultural R&D
capacity and investments; identify gaps; set future
investment priorities; and better coordinate
agricultural R&D across institutes, regions, and
commodities

3. www.asti.cgiar.org
THE ASTI INITIATIVE
• Collects institutional, investment and human
resource capacity data from complete set of
national agricultural R&D agencies
• Large network of national, regional and
international partners; led by IFPRI
• Close collaboration with AARINENA and national
agricultural research institutes
• Provides:
– Trends over time at country / regional levels
– Comparisons within and across countries / regions

4. ASTI indicators
• Institutional arrangements
• R&D spending by cost category
• Funding sources
• R&D staff by degree, gender, and age
• R&D focus by commodity and theme
• Output indicators
www.asti.cgiar.org
ASTI OUTPUTS
ASTI outputs
• Country factsheets
• Regional and global reports
• Downloadable datasets
• Analytical assessments
• Seminars and presentations
• Press releases/media outreach
• ASTI website (www.asti.cgiar.org)

5. www.asti.cgiar.org
METHODOLOGY
• Surveyed more than 300 government, higher education,
nonprofit, and private-sector agencies in 11 WANA
countries
• Human resource data were FTE-adjusted
• Financial data include salaries, operating, and capital costs
• Financial data are expressed in 2005 PPP dollars

6. AGRICULTURAL R&D REMAINS A PUBLIC AFFAIR
www.asti.cgiar.org
70 72
58
83
72
92
73
86
57
79
30 27
42
16
28
8
27
14
38
21
1 1 5
100
80
60
40
20
0
Share in total FTE researchers (%)
Government Higher education Private

7. GOOD NEWS: RECENT INCREASES IN R&D CAPACITY
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593
556
542
272
244
209
63
527
933
3,009
0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500
Turkey
Sudan
Algeria
Morocco
Tunisia
Yemen
Jordan
Oman
Lebanon
Mauritania
Full-time equivalent agricultural researchers
+1%
+7%
+26%
+8%
+1%
+26%
+61%
+26%
+16%
+17%
0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500
Turkey
Sudan
Algeria
Morocco
Tunisia
Yemen
Jordan
Oman
Lebanon
Mauritania
Full-time equivalent agricultural researchers
2012 2009
2012

8. GOOD NEWS: RECENT CAPACITY INCREASES
MAINLY AT PHD AND MSC LEVEL
www.asti.cgiar.org
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
2009 2010 2011 2012
Full-time equivalent
researchers
PhD MSc BSc

9. www.asti.cgiar.org
Higher education
MAIN
CHALLENGE:
National agricultural R&D
institutes face difficulties
attracting (and retaining)
PhD-qualified scientists.
2012
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
ARC
Higher education
AREA
Higher education
GDAR
Higher education
INRAT
Higher education
DGALR
Higher education
INRA
Higher education
LARI
Higher education
NCARE
Higher education
INRAA
Algeria Jordan Lebanon Morocco Oman Tunisia Turkey Yemen Sudan
Degree qualifications of agricultural researchers
PhD MSc BSc

10. CHALLENGE:
A very large share of PhD-qualified
researchers at
national agricultural R&D
institutes will be retiring in
the coming decade.
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0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Total
PhD
Total
PhD
Total
PhD
Total
PhD
Total
PhD
Total
PhD
Total
PhD
Total
PhD
Total
PhD
INRAA NCARE LARI INRA DGALR INRAT GDAR AREA ARC
Algeria Jordan Lebanon Morocco Oman Tunisia Turkey Yemen Sudan
Share of researchers in age bracket
<31 31-40 41-50 51-60 >60
2012

11. CHALLENGE:
Women are
underrepresented in
agricultural R&D in many
WANA countries.
www.asti.cgiar.org
2012
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Algeria
Lebanon
Sudan
Tunisia
Turkey
Oman
Morocco
Jordan
Mauritania
Yemen
Women Men

12. www.asti.cgiar.org
UNEVEN GROWTH IN REGIONAL
AGRICULTURAL R&D INVESTMENT
9
56
35
34
32
30
97
82
131
406
0 100 200 300 400 500
Turkey
Morocco
Oman
Algeria
Tunisia
Yemen
Lebanon
Jordan
Sudan
Mauritania
million PPP dollars; 2005 prices
+3%
+19%
+13%
-28%
+57%
-5%
-43%
-21%
+19%
0%
0 100 200 300 400 500
Turkey
Morocco
Oman
Algeria
Tunisia
Yemen
Lebanon
Jordan
Sudan
Mauritania
million PPP dollars; 2005 prices
2012 2009 2012

13. WIDESPREAD UNDERINVESTMENT PREVAILS
Caution when analyzing
research intensity ratios!
www.asti.cgiar.org
0.95
0.80
0.64
0.56
0.51
0.49
0.21
0.19
1.84
6.51
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Oman
Jordan
Lebanon
Mauritania
Tunisia
Yemen
Turkey
Morocco
Algeria
Sudan
Agricultural R&D spending as a share of AgGDP
2012

14. SPENDING ALLOCATION OF AGRICULTURAL R&D
www.asti.cgiar.org
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
AREA-Yemen
GDAR-Turkey
Tunisia
ARC-Sudan
DGALR-Oman
Morocco
Mauritania
LARI-Lebanon
NCARE-Jordan
INRAA-Algeria
Share of total spending
Salaries Operating and program costs Capital investments
2012

15. www.asti.cgiar.org
VERY LIMITED DIVERSIFICATION OF
AGRICULTURAL R&D FUNDING
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
AREA-Yemen
GDAR-Turkey
Tunisia
ARC-Sudan
DGALR-Oman
Morocco
Mauritania
LARI-Lebanon
NCARE-Jordan
INRAA-Algeria
Share of total funding
Government Donors and development banks
Commodity levies Sale of goods/services
Other
2012

16. www.asti.cgiar.org
OTHER INDICATORS
• Commodity focus and thematic focus
• Water management research capacity
• Agricultural students enrolled/graduated
• Support staff data

17. www.asti.cgiar.org
POLICY IMPLICATIONS
• Enhance recruitment and postgraduate training of young
researchers
• Address disparities in employment status and promotion
opportunities for government and university-based researchers
• Explore other incentive measures to attract and retain researchers
• Retirement age increases needed in some cases
• Increase government funding levels
• Develop new strategies and mechanisms for raising funding from
other sources, including private sector
• Institutional and policy reform to strengthen agricultural R&D
• Infrastructure upgrades
• Stimulate private-sector R&D through tax incentives and subsidies
• Better M&E systems needed
• Etc.

18. UPCOMING ASTI OUTPUTS FOR WANA REGION
• Series of factsheets (En, Fr, Ar)
• Regional report
• Interactive country pages with links
to datasets, publications, institutional
information, and other resources
• User-friendly data download tool
• Benchmarking tool for cross-country
www.asti.cgiar.org
comparisons
• Host of other CGIAR datasets on
agricultural R&D (DIIVA; CGIAR
financial data)
• Outreach
TO BE LAUNCHED IN NOVEMBER

19. THANK YOU