Prospects For Enhancing Value Of Crops Through Public Sector Research

As international agricultural research centers places greater emphasis on poverty reduction, a debate is underway whether higher priority should be given to research to “add value” to agricultural commodities through post-harvest innovations at the expense of the traditional emphasis given to agricultural production. In particular, post-harvest research is seen as a way of creating new markets for commodities that may be in surplus or are facing declining demand. In this paper we review the evidence on the economic benefits from past public investments in post-harvest research to increase value of two major food crops – potato and sweetpotato. For the review we draw upon the experiences of two research institutions: first for the United States public research system during the early 20th Century and then for the International Potato Center (CIP) since its post-harvest research program began in 1975. Most of the evidence from both the U.S. and CIP’s experiences strongly suggests that public sector investment in generating value-enhancing technologies for potato and sweetpotato has been characterized by a low rate of return. New product development is a particularly risky endeavor. Implications for investment by international agricultural research centers in value-enhancing agricultural research are discussed.

Priority assessment for commodity improvement programmes has received methodological attention, yet innovation is needed for other, newer areas of research which have impact pathways that are harder to predict. Focusing on priority setting practices utilized in different international agricultural research institutes, this book discusses real world experiences and innovations with priority assessment methods. Chapters present approaches that have been used to articulate, explore and assess impact pathways and research priorities, while also considering their strengths and weaknesses and drawing together methodological lessons.

The Agricultural Outlook 2021-2030 is a collaborative effort of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. It brings together the commodity, policy and country expertise of both organisations as well as input from collaborating member countries to provide an annual assessment of the prospects for the coming decade of national, regional and global agricultural commodity markets. The publication consists of 11 Chapters; Chapter 1 covers agricultural and food markets; Chapter 2 provides regional outlooks and the remaining chapters are dedicated to individual commodities.

This twentieth edition of the Agricultural Outlook provides market projections to 2023 for major agricultural commodities, biofuels and fish across 41 countries and 12 regions. It includes a special focus on India.