International Agricultural Research System Research Articles

Applying circular economy principles to intensification of livestock production in Sub-Saharan Africa

In the context of sustainable agricultural development, much has been made of the need to apply agroecology or regenerative principles to improve rural livelihoods and to align the sector with critical planetary health boundaries. This movement is a reaction to the perceived private and social costs arising from both production and consumption associated with industrialised agriculture, mostly in upper-income countries, with several default assumptions being apparent about applicability elsewhere. The notion of circularity, or the circular economy, is frequently conflated with agro ecological rhetoric, often overlooking a longer tradition of circular resource use efficiency in traditional mixed crop–livestock farming in low-income settings. This paper examines the concept and origins of circularity and reviews some examples of historic circular economy research within the international agricultural research system as applied to smallholder agriculture. These include (i) studies focusing on the impact of crop residue retention, (ii) work on residue incorporation and/or mulching and their effects on crop yields and soil fertility, (iii) research on the effects of manure use on crop yields and soil fertility and (iv) work on the feeding of crop residues to livestock. We consider some promising innovations or practices adhering to circular economy principles. Candidate innovations focus on the improvement of livestock feeding practices including the breeding of dual-purpose crops to enhance livestock nutrition, conversion of cereal straw residues to high-quality feed, use of cassava waste as livestock feed and use of insects as livestock feed. We conclude by considering how circular bio-economy principles might be maintained in the future evolution of food systems in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Unplanned but well prepared: A reinterpreted success story of international agricultural research, and its implications

A recent study found that adoption rates of improved chickpea varieties were above 90 per cent in Andhra Pradesh, India. In this paper, we use a novel perspective to reconstruct and attribute how this outcome came about. The accepted success narrative is that the public international agricultural research system developed some excellent new chickpea varieties, which were well suited to local agro-ecologies, farming systems and cropping patterns, and highly appreciated by farmers. We argue that this narrative is incomplete, because it constitutes only a partial explanation of the confluence of factors that led to the outcome. We reconstruct the success story using a recent conceptual framework that decomposes the technological change process into four aspects: propositions, encounters, dispositions and responses (PEDR). We show that many of the factors which contributed to the spread of modern chickpea varieties in Andhra Pradesh lay beyond the control of the international agricultural research system, and operated across large spatial and temporal scales. In conclusion, we argue that the success of improved chickpeas in Andhra Pradesh underscores the value of basic plant breeding and research, which aim to produce public goods. We relate our analysis to current discussions about the future strategic direction of international agricultural research organisations and the CGIAR. Our argument implies a criticism of the drive to develop new varieties which conform to product profiles that are based on predictions of current and near-term demand. While that approach makes sense for product developers seeking to serve commercial markets, basic research is needed to create and diversify technical options, which anticipate a range of future needs that are hard to predict in the present.

Fruits and Vegetables in International Agricultural Research: A Case of Neglect?

Fruits and vegetables (F+Vs) can play an important role in combatting the problem of the double burden of malnutrition. Agricultural research can help to increase the productivity and the resource-use efficiency of fruit and vegetable production and, thus, reduce prices so that these commodities can become more available to poor households. However, the crops research of the international agricultural research system, including its centerpiece the CGIAR, has so far concentrated mainly on staple grains and starchy food crops, while largely neglecting most F+Vs. None of the current CGIAR centers is specifically dedicated to fruits or vegetables if the convention is followed not to consider cassava, potatoes of all types, and bananas and their relatives as vegetables. The underlying reasons why the CGIAR has not focused on F+Vs are explored in this review. The early emphasis on food staple crops was motivated by the perception that the hunger problems of the era were primarily deficiencies in food energy. The success of the Green Revolution, in which international agricultural research played a key role, stimulated further emphasis on increasing the productivity of staple grains as the major strategy to combat hunger. F+Vs, however, received limited attention. The Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center in Taiwan was created outside the CGIAR system. In the 1990s new centers were added to the CGIAR system, but this opportunity was not used to create a dedicated center for F+Vs. Some informal activities to conduct research on F+Vs also took place in several other CGIAR centers as part of the farming systems research activities, based on the recognition that F+Vs are small but important elements of many farming systems of the developing world. Through an analysis of the reasons why the CGIAR system has tended little to F+Vs, this paper presents an assessment of possible future strategies to better integrate these "neglected" commodities into international agricultural research efforts. The assessment shows that genetic improvement might perhaps best be largely left to the private sector, while international agricultural research could better focus on developing strategies for integrated pest management, biological pest control, and improved water use efficiency, as these are areas where private companies have limited incentives to invest. Moreover, publicly funded research could help to find low-cost solutions for infrastructure-related aspects such as postharvest handling and storage (e.g., cooling and drying), aspects where renewable energy sources have a substantial potential.

Economic performance of community based bean seed production and marketing in the central rift valley of Ethiopia

Limited access to seed of improved varieties is an impediment to agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa. Researchers in the national and international agricultural research systems have been piloting a community based seed multiplication and marketing enterprises (CBSME) model, as an alternative to the formal seed systems, in order to increase availability and accessibility to quality seed of improved common bean (Phaseolus vulvaris L.) varieties by smallholder farmers. The objective of this study was to assess the profitability of CBSME as an enterprise for seed production and analyse factors that influence farmers’ decisions to participate in it as seed producers or buyers of seed. Gross margins were computed to assess value addition at farm level; while Tobit and multivariate probit models used to respectively, analyse determinants of participation in community based seed multiplication enterprise and its use by producers as a seed source. The community based seed multiplication enterprises were found to be profitable, generating US$792 as gross margins and accessible to farmers for the bean seed, along other seed sources, i.e. formal and informal seed systems. These three seed production and delivery models competed at farm level, but complemented each other in terms of reaching users in different social groups and locations. Community based seed multiplication enterprises as sources of seed were used by farmers located in rural areas and those in farmer organisations/cooperatives. However, seed production through this model is concentrated closer to urban areas, where individual seed producers are easily linked to the formal seed system. This, however, makes the marketing of seed reliant on big buyers for redistribution among remote farming communities.Key Words: Community bean seed multiplication, Ethiopia, improved varieties, seed systems

Training and Capacity Building: An Essential Strategy for Development at an International Research Center

In order to be meaningful, agricultural research has to provide solutions to problems, especially in the international agricultural research system which is designed to contribute to enhanced food production and improved rural livelihoods in the lesser-developed world. Training and human resource development, whether at the technical support or research scientists/managerial level, is fundamental to an effective agricultural research and technology transfer system. By comparison with the developed world, the national agricultural research systems (NARS) in developing countries are weak, often with ineffective extension programs, as typified by the West Asia-North Africa (WANA) region, which is served by the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). Despite the potential benefits of enhancing human skills, training and human resource development activities are often under-valued and under-funded in international research centers that serve developing countries. By highlighting training at ICARDA and its mandate countries, we sought to give renewed focus on this important component of the mission of the Consultative Group on Agricultural Research (CGIAR). In this article, we considered ICARDA’s philosophy and concepts on training, collaborating institutions, educational materials, categories of training, development of training courses, significant outcomes of training, shifting paradigms, and future directions. ICARDA’s innovative collaborative approach is a model to be emulated not only by the Centers but by other international institutions involved in agricultural and rural development in the developing countries. At this crucial time of restructuring of the CGIAR, renewed emphasis on training has never been more urgent.

Is international agricultural research a global public good? The case of rice biofortification

The status of international agricultural research as a global public good (GPG) has been widely accepted since the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. While the term was not used at the time of its creation, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) system that evolved at that time has been described as a ‘prime example of the promise, performance and perils of an international approach to providing GPGs’. Contemporary literature on international agricultural research as a GPG tends to support this view and focuses on how to operationalize the concept. This paper adopts a different starting point and questions this conceptualization of the CGIAR and its outputs. It questions the appropriateness of such a ‘neutral’ concept to a system born of the imperatives of Cold War geopolitics, and shaped by a history of attempts to secure its relevance in a changing world. This paper draws on a multi-sited, ethnographic study of a research effort highlighted by the CGIAR as an exemplar of GPG-oriented research. Behind the ubiquitous language of GPGs, ‘partnership’ and ‘consensus’, however, new forms of exclusion and restriction are emerging within everyday practice, reproducing North–South inequalities and undermining the ability of these programmes to respond to the needs of projected beneficiaries.

Public–private partnerships and developing‐country agriculture: Evidence from the international agricultural research system

AbstractThis study examines the role of public–private partnerships (PPPs) in promoting pro‐poor productivity‐enhancing technological innovation in the international agricultural research system. The study examines the extent to which PPPs are being used to overcome market and institutional failures that otherwise inhibit the development and dissemination of technologies targeted specifically to small‐scale, resource‐poor farmers in developing countries. Drawing on a survey of 75 PPP projects in the international system, findings suggest that while PPPs are changing the way the system manages its research agenda, few partnerships lead to joint innovation processes with the private sector. This indicates the need for closer examination of organizational practices, cultures, and incentives in the international agricultural research system. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Assessing the Impact of Adaptive Agricultural Research on Accelerating Technology Deployment

A critical assumption in the impact assessment of an agricultural R&D effort is whether the effort in question has a substitute – that is, whether the innovation would also happen under other settings. This paper takes the case of zero tillage wheat in India to explore diverging counterfactual scenarios whereby, in the ‘without’ case, the innovation would not have been introduced or would have been introduced only with a ten-year or five-year lag. The authors quantify how the assumed counterfactual scenario affects various impact assessment indicators. They show that, even when assuming a conservative five-year lag and based on induced supply-shift gains alone, the investment in zero tillage R&D by the international agricultural research system was highly beneficial. The ability of zero tillage to combine cost savings and yield gains, its wide applicability and significant R&D spill-ins contributed to the high returns. The case thus highlights the high potential gains from successful adaptive research, even if the main effect is only to accelerate technology deployment.

Induced technical and institutional change in tropical agriculture

The author employs a model in which the direction of technical change is induced by changes in relative resource endowments to interpret the trajectories of technical change in both developed and developing country agriculture. An international agricultural research system, an institutional innovation supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), has become an important source of advances in yield enhancing biological technology. National agricultural research systems in a number of developing countries have been strengthened. Concern is expressed about the failure of national governments and international donors to sustain investment in agricultural research capacity.

Moving beyond component research in mountain regions: Operationalizing systems integration at farm and landscape scales

Most research in support of agricultural development and natural resource management in densely settled mountain ecosystems continues to emphasize component over system-level goals. Research by plant breeders, foresters and animal scientists is generally designed to maximize the yield of products within their particular area of expertise (edible plant parts, tree products and livestock products, respectively), while soil scientists aim largely to increase soil nutrient stocks. At landscape level the same dynamic holds within the agronomic sciences, while water engineers work independently to conserve water through its isolation from broader landscape dynamics, and other common property resources remain largely ignored. Opportunities to foster positive synergies between system components, and to integrate livelihood with conservation goals, are generally missed. This paper presents experiences of the African Highlands Initiative, an ecoregional program of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and a network of the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), in operationalizing integrated research at farm and landscape scale. Following a discussion of the shortcomings of the conventional research paradigm that beg for stronger integration and a review of the contributions of extant research paradigms that help us move in the right direction, the paper lays a conceptual foundation for integrated research. System components at farm and landscape level are delineated, and this somewhat arbitrary conceptual partitioning of agroecological systems shown to influence the current research paradigm as well as the partitioning of institutional mandates. Diverse meanings of systems integration are then discussed to illustrate the synergies that might be built into agricultural and natural resource research programs. The distinction between the logic of maximization and optimization is then utilized to distinguish between component and “system-level” goals. This conceptual overview is followed by several case studies to illustrate how these concepts can guide the formulation of integrated research objectives, methods and outputs at farm and landscape scale. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of this alternative research paradigm for the structure, function and skill base of national and international agricultural research systems.

Livestock Revolution in India: Its Impact and Policy Response

A demand-driven revolution in livestock consumption and production is taking place in many developing countries, impacting on nutrition, health, the environment, and national and international agricultural marketing and research systems. This Livestock Revolution is most evident in China, India and Brazil because of the sheer size of these countries. While China and Brazil have a dominant role in meat production as part of this Livestock Revolution, the revolution will not be limited to China and Brazil, and extends beyond the meat market. The example of India is a case in point. The near doubling of aggregate milk consumption as food in India between the early 1980s and the late 1990s suggests that the Livestock Revolution goes beyond meat production and consumption. Now the critical question for economic managers and planners in countries such as India is no longer whether the Livestock Revolution is manifest in the country or not, but to what extent poor people and smallholders can play a significant part in this enterprise. This article charts the development of the Indian Livestock Revolution and assesses the potential impact of industrialization of livestock production on small farmers especially. It is argued that intensive livestock farming may not be appropriate for India on a number of grounds. There is a risk that the Livestock Revolution, similar to the Green Revolution, will polarize the inequality between rich and poor. Decisive action needs to be taken to ensure that the poor benefit from such developments, and some policy recommendations are made to address such concerns.

Patents and the CGIAR system of International Agricultural Research Centres' germplasm collections under the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

A key controversy in negotiating the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and the likely long-term effectiveness of the agreement, is the way in which the intellectual property provisions are interpreted and applied to the key genetic resources forming the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) system of International Agricultural Research Centres' (IARC) collections. This paper reviews the intellectual property provisions in the treaty and examines the likely consequences from patenting under the Patents Act 1990 over materials derived from these collections. The consequence is argued to be significant and, over time, these practices are likely to deplete the usefulness of these collections and undermine the relevance of the treaty. The paper concludes that Australia's interests might best be served by arguing that access to these collections, and the other materials under the treaty, be subject to a non-exclusive, royalty free licence for any use of the derived materials to develop useful new plant varieties.

Salience, Credibility, Legitimacy and Boundaries: Linking Research, Assessment and Decision Making

The boundary between science and policy is only one of several boundaries that hinder the linking of scientific and technical information to decision making. Managing boundaries between disciplines, across scales of geography and jurisdiction, and between different forms of knowledge is also often critical to transferring information. The research presented in this paper finds that information requires three (not mutually exclusive) attributes - salience, credibility, and legitimacy - and that what makes boundary crossing difficult is that actors on different sides of a boundary perceive and value salience, credibility, and legitimacy differently. Presenting research on water management regimes in the United States, international agricultural research systems, El Nino forecasting systems in the Pacific and southern Africa, and fisheries in the North Atlantic, this paper explores: 1) how effective boundary work involves creating salient, credible, and legitimate information simultaneously for multiple audiences; 2) the thresholds, complementarities and tradeoffs between salience, credibility, and legitimacy when crossing boundaries; and 3) propositions for institutional mechanisms in boundary organizations which effectively balance tradeoffs, take advantage on complementarities, and reach thresholds of salience, credibility, and legitimacy.

The Creation and Spread of Technology and Total Factor Productivity in China's Agriculture

AbstractThe overall goal of this study is to create a framework for assessing the trends of China's national and international investment in agricultural research and to measure its impact on total factor productivity. The main methodological contribution is to provide more convincing measures of crop‐specific technologies from China's national research program and of those imported from the international agricultural research system. Our results find that from 1980 to 1995, China's total factor productivity for rice, wheat, and maize grew rapidly and new technology accounts for most of the productivity growth.

Crop Genetic Improvement for Enhanced Human Nutrition

In the past decade, micronutrient malnutrition has been identified as a major underlying cause of numerous human health problems in developing countries. The international agricultural research system has been highly successful in producing crop varieties with traits desired by farmers, such as higher yield and greater tolerance of poor growing conditions. These improved varieties have spread widely throughout developing countries and now provide the staple foods eaten daily by billions of people, including the poor in many difficult to reach rural areas. Modern plant breeding and biotechnology offer new opportunities to use this same international system to increase the micronutrient content and enhance the nutritional value of these staple foods. Over time, this could be an important complement to the progress that is being made in providing micronutrient supplements and fortified foods and in encouraging people to eat more diversified diets. Nutritionists and agriculturists will need to work together to define the deficiencies, target the right populations and deliver the right products.

The Creation and Spread of Technology and Total Factor Productivity in China's Agriculture

The study's overall goal is to create a framework for assessing the trends of China's national and international investment in agricultural research and to measure its impact on total factor productivity. The main methodological contribution is to provide more convincing measures of crop-specific technologies from China's national research program and of those imported from the international agricultural research system. Our results find that from 1980-95, China's total factor productivity for rice, wheat and maize grew rapidly and new technology accounts for most of the productivity growth.

Formal system and farmers' system: the impact of CIMMYT maize germplasm in South-Western China

China has followed a modern technology oriented approach and has relied predominantly on its public agricultural research system to ensure the national food security. However, national food security not necessary mean food security for all. Poverty and food insecurity are still issues in China. The impact of agricultural research on poverty alleviation has increasingly drawn attention from the International Agricultural Research Centers of Consultive Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and National Agricultural Research System (NARS). The present paper is based on an impact study of a CIMMYT’s Collaborative Programme on Maize Breeding in South-western China, which was carried out by the author from 1994 to 1998 2 . The impact study has revealed that the impact of CIMMYT's maize germplasm on food security and poverty alleviation is quite significant and is actually being achieved through both the formal system and farmers' system. The paper intends to address the interrelated national and household food security and poverty alleviation issues by assessing the impact of the Programme and analysing the capabilities of public research and farmers' indigenous knowledge to deal with these issues at different levels. It concludes by suggesting that China will benefit from a twin-truck approach, i.e. a combination of modern technology oriented approach and participatory approach. Collaboration between the formal and farmers’ knowledge systems are highly necessary for the design of agricultural

Poverty, productivity and production environment:: a review of the evidence

This paper reviews the state of knowledge about the key issues needing to be understood to satisfactorily resolve a long-standing debate within the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) system. The debate revolves around the effects on various populations (particularly the poor) of different allocations of research effort between marginal and favoured production environments. This paper specifically focuses on what is known about the geographical distribution of the rural poor, across agro-ecological zones and over time. Variations in the income-generating activities—including non-agricultural activities—engaged in by the poor are examined and the ways in which specific technology packages affect the economic well-being of different types of households, both directly and indirectly.

Agriculture–nutrition Linkages and the US Department of Agriculture: A Global View

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) system, like the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), has been successful in using research to improve the yield and efficiency of food systems. Our systems must now move beyond a focus on simply producing enough food to address fundamental issues of how to make the food system better able to meet the nutritional needs of consumers and contribute to sustainable environmental quality. Success in this endeavour will be determined by multidisciplinary research efforts. This is an area where more specific collaboration between the CGIAR and the USDA will be essential. The USDA Agricultural Research Service has been experimenting with these multidisciplinary partnerships for at least 60 years. Some examples from USDA's experience are given.

Plant biotechnology and developing countries

Over the next half century, crop production in developing countries must more than double. Plant biotechnology, applied through the international agricultural research system, can help to ensure that the necessary increases in production are achieved, that they are sustainable and that they will benefit the vast majority of food producers and consumers in developing countries with limited purchasing power.