Browsing by Author "Stads, Gert-Jan"

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    Agricultural R&D Expenditure in Africa: An Analysis of Growth and Volatility
    (The European Journal of Development Research, 2015) Stads, Gert-Jan; Beintema, Nienke
    Agricultural research and development (R&D) investment is positively associated with high returns, but these returns take time – often decades – to develop. Consequently, the inherent lag from the inception of research to the adoption of new technologies calls for sustained and stable R&D funding. This article introduces a quantitative measure to assess volatility in agricultural R&D spending. It reveals that agricultural R&D spending in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been substantially more volatile than in other developing regions, which is the consequence of low levels of government funding, coupled with a high dependence on short-term and ad hoc donor and development bank funding. Rather than relying too much on external funding, SSA governments need to clearly identify long-term priorities, design focused and coherent agricultural R&D programmes accordingly, and commit sufficient funding for their implementation, while donor funding needs to be better aligned with national priorities. Moreover, diversification of funding sources is needed to better absorb funding shocks.
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    Measuring Agricultural Research Investments: A Revised Global Picture
    (Gates Open Res, 2019) Beintema, Nienke M.; Stads, Gert-Jan
    Revised calculations of global agricultural research and development (R&D) spending show that the world is investing less in agricultural research than previously thought. In addition, the agricultural R&D spending of developing countries has been revised downward, with the result that high-income countries as a group still invest more in public agricultural R&D than do developing countries. Developing countries are making up ground, but more slowly than previously estimated.This brief presents revised investment trends in global agricultural R&D previously published by the Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI) initiative. This revision has been prompted by major World Bank adjustments to its comparative pricing of goods and services across countries, expressed in internationally comparable exchange rates known as purchasing power parity (PPP) indexes. These index adjustments have in turn led to downward revisions of global economic growth figures by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and an upward revision of developing-country poverty estimates by the World Bank. Furthermore, ASTI recently revised its country classifications to reflect increasing diversity among developing countries. The initiative has also produced new estimates of agricultural R&D investments for Latin America and the Caribbean, and a number of other developed and developing countries. The reduced calculation of total global agricultural R&D spending is largely the result of a downward adjustment of total spending for China and India. The PPP indexes for the United States, Japan, and other high-income countries did not undergo major revisions. However, due to large downward PPP adjustments in many other countries as well as the reclassification of non-OECD high-income countries, the share of high-income countries as a group in 2000 increased to 57 percent.
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    Public Agricultural R&D Investments and Capacities in Developing Countries recent evidence for 2000 and beyond
    (Gates Open Res, 2019) Beintema, Nienke M.; Stads, Gert-Jan
    Compiling up-to-date, accurate information on global trends in public agricultural R&D investments is extremely challenging because for many countriesno such information exists, and for others the available information is outdated, irregular, or incomplete. The Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI) initiative strives to redress this problem, but—as a public good—ASTI focuses on developing countries (herein defined as low- and middle-income countries). In addition, based on financial and time constraints, ASTI collects data on a regional basis and over considerable intervals of time.
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    Sub-Saharan African agricultural research Recent investment trends
    (Outlook on Agriculture, 2004) Beintema, Nienke M.; Stads, Gert-Jan
    Following two decades of increasing investments, growth in public agricultural research spending in Sub-Saharan Africa stagnated during the 1980s and 1990s at an average rate of about 1% per year. Nonetheless, this continent-wide trend masks significant variation among countries. During 1991–2000, about half the countries in the authors' 27-country sample experienced negative annual growth in total agricultural research and development (R&D) spending. Declines often resulted from political unrest or the completion of large donor-funded projects. The majority of African agricultural research is still conducted by the government sector, with the private for-profit sector accounting for only a small, but seemingly increasing, share of total research expenditures.