Investments in and the Economic Returns to Agricultural and Food R&D Worldwide

The global landscape of public and private investments in research and development (R&D) related to food and agriculture is changing dramatically. Privately performed R&D continues to give a substantial innovative edge to the higher income countries where most of this R&D takes place. However, through their public investments in R&D, the middle-income countries are growing in relative importance as producers of agricultural innovations. This pattern is reinforced by the chronic underinvestment in the lowest-income countries and shrinking investment by the high-income countries. Ample evidence of very high returns to investments in agricultural and food R&D gives strong indications of a persistent underinvestment worldwide.