Abstract

Based on a comprehensive search and review of the literature, 42 studies are identified for in-depth review and analysis of documented impacts of agricultural research from 1959 to 2009. This body of evidence is subjected to a systematic, quantitative scrutiny for the coverage and type of impact to derive patterns, gaps and trends in documented impacts of research in the subregion. The analysis offers compelling evidence that past investments in agricultural research in the region have been productive. In so doing, the study also reveals some persistent patterns and identifies a number of gaps between investments and documented impacts. Strikingly, the benefits are principally derived from rice improvement research, which has generated 86% of total documented benefits in the Southeast Asia region over the past five decades. In comparison with rice improvement research, evidence of impacts in other areas such as natural resource management and other commodities is minor. This suggests that there is considerably more certainty about the ability of rice research, particularly genetic improvement, to generate impact than is the case for other research foci.However, even for rice, the evidence has been patchy across time and space. There has been no comprehensive and subregion-wide attempt to inventory trends in adoption of improved rice varieties and document historical net benefits generated by this research effort. Despite the large-scale, long-term and sustained adoption of research generated rice technologies for smallholder farmers in this subregion, an impressive story on the impacts of agricultural research on long-term developmental goals still remains undocumented. The paper also reveals a declining trend in total documented net benefits from agricultural research in recent years, which is probably attributable to research lag times and changes in the intensity of impact assessment over time.

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