By Nienke Beintema, ASTI program leader. Presented at the 2nd Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD2), Punta del Este, Uruguay, 29 Oct–1 Nov 2012.

1. ASSESSING RECENT AGRICULTURAL R&D
SPENDING TRENDS GLOBALLY AND REGIONALLY
Nienke Beintema, ASTI/IFPRI

2. Pathway to ASTI Global Assessment on Agricultural R&D Spending
• ASTI collects primary data for low- and middle-income countries through national
institutional survey rounds
• Spending patterns can be highly dynamic over time so global estimates need to
be made with caution (2008 latest year of reliable data)
• In recent years ASTI focused on data collection for Africa south of the Sahara
and South Asia
• With GFAR, AARINENA, APAARI, CACAARI, FORAGRO, and national partners
ASTI collected additional data for other developing regions
• With USDA-ERS, using secondary sources, ASTI estimated spending trends for
high-income countries and prepared ASTI-GFAR report (and infographic)
• See asti.cgiar.org/globaloverview for more information

3. Developing Countries Drive Spending Growth in Public Agricultural R&D

4. Regional Allocation of Public Spending, 2008

5. Agricultural R&D Spending Pays Off…….
…. But the World Poorest Countries Lag Behind

6. A Viable Monitoring System of Agricultural R&D Resource Levels
• Need to move from ad-hoc data collection to a sustainable monitoring system
with regular updates (in place for Africa south of the Sahara and South Asia)
• Enhance ownership of the data and stimulate further advocacy and analysis
at the national level
• Measure not only inputs (investments/capacity), but also output indicators
required to assess performance of agricultural research institutions within and
across countries
• Intensify further analysis of trends to make information more relevant for
policymakers and other stakeholders
• Such a sustainable system needs sustainable funding