Science, Technology and Skills

The invention of agriculture that occurred around 10,000 years ago heralded a shift from nomadic hunting and gathering to more managed forms of food, feed and fiber production. Since then, agricultural innovation and research has produced great results in feeding the earth's population. This report looks at the changing context of agricultural research and development (RD changing incentives to innovate; collective action in R&D, and financing of R&D. The report also looks at the state of sciences for agriculture as well as technological distance, spillovers, and knowledge stocks. The final section of the paper deals with technological risk and how to regulate technology in the agricultural sector.