Efficiency of Investment in Agricultural R & D in Relation to Food Production Index: A Malmquist Index Analysis for the West-African Countries

Abstract

Investment in R & D in the agricultural sector is one of the means to propel the growth of the sector, but failure to ensure the efficient use of resources allocated to agricultural R & D would lead to wastage and underproduction. Based on this, the paper seeks to look at the efficiency of investment in agricultural R& D in relation to the food production index in the West Africa sub-region. To achieve this objective, the number of full-time researchers and spending in terms of percentage of the share of agriculture to GDP were treated as inputs and the food production index as an output (agriculture output). The study used panel data from 2009 to 2014. The Malmquist index approach was adopted to measure the efficiency of food production in selected West African countries. The mean Malmquist index of 0.991, 1.032, 0.976, 0.995, 1.051, 0.908, 0.966, and 0.961 for Ghana, Benin, Burkina-Faso, Ivory Coast, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Togo, respectively, were recorded. Benin and Niger experienced growth in food production within the period. The remaining countries, however, did not experience growth in food production as their respective means were less than 1 (Mi <1), which was an indication of inefficiencies in the application of investments committed to agricultural R & D. To help identify the role played by various components, technical efficiency change and technological progress change for the respective countries were also calculated. The results of the study show the need to go beyond mere allocation of resources to the agricultural sector and push towards efficient use of resources. The allocation of resources without measures to ensure their proper use would not yield the desired outcome. Various countries exhibited some levels of inefficiency across the dimensions assessed. This, therefore, calls for close attention to the use of agricultural resources. There is a need to ensure efficient use of resources committed to agricultural research and development across respective countries. Measures should be put in place to reduce wastage and redundancy in the allocation of resources for agricultural research and development, to improve efficiency and productivity in the agricultural sector.