What determines public budgets for agricultural growth in the developing world?

26 September 2017. With agriculture still the mainstay for the majority of poor people, increasing competition for public resources forces the academic and practitioner community to focus a sharper lens on how to properly target agricultural public investments for development. Yet, policymakers often tend to neglect agricultural investments with proven high returns, such as agricultural R and D, while types of agricultural public spending with much more limited welfare impact, such as agricultural input subsidies, gain strong budgetary attention. Why do such patterns persist?

This webinar by Tewodaj Mogues (picture) (IFPRI) looked at this conundrum, with a focus on Africa, by presenting findings from data and research in three aspects of agricultural public investments.