Improving Agricultural Research Funding, Structure and Collaboration

Washington D.C./April 20, 2011 – The Global Harvest Initiative (GHI) today released the first of five policy issue briefs bringing a global focus to meeting the agricultural needs of a rapidly growing global population by increasing the rate of agricultural productivity.

A recent GHI report suggests that the rate of agricultural productivity must increase at a minimum of 25 percent per year to meet future demand and double output over the next 40 years.. In the next 50 years, agriculture will be called upon to produce more food than in the previous 10,000 years combined with little or no increase in the amounts of arable land, water or resources available. The efficiencies and increased productivity necessary to meet these agricultural challenges cannot be achieved without a renewed focus on research.

Enhanced research, including more funding and better managed programs and competitive research funding, is a primary source of the needed innovation and productivity gains to grow more and better food and help alleviate global poverty and hunger. The 2008 global food price spike helped refocus attention on the role of agriculture in the development agenda, and hopefully to a recommitment of support for global agricultural research.

In this paper, the Global Harvest Initiative outlines the importance of agricultural research and puts forth recommendations to improve funding, structure and collaboration to better leverage the potential of research in increasing global agricultural productivity.

Related:

Invitation to Participate in E-Consultation on Feed the Future Research Agenda

From May 9-27, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) will be coordinating a major on-line consultation, focusing on the research strategy of the US Government's new Feed the Future (FTF) Initiative. It will be a chance for researchers and other stakeholders to consider and provide input to the US government on FTF's research priorities, and to discuss how best to support and engage with this important new program. 

You are invited and encouraged to participate in this consultation.  Click here to learn more and to register.  

APLU is seeking participation and input from a wide cross-section of researchers concerned with agriculture, hunger alleviation, and human development, and all others interested in commenting on and engaging with FTF's research strategy. For further information about the complete consultation process