The developing world faces the tough task of producing adequate food to meet the demands of its burgeoning population, as yield levels of major crops have struck a plateau. Food and nutrition security being the major concerns, agricultural R&D in less-developed countries is at the crossroads. The earlier days, when the benefits from the technological breakthroughs attained by the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research institutes and the public sector research of the developing countries, was spilling over to the developing countries may not come again. Hi-tech crops research is capital-intensive and only the private sector has been able to invest and harness. While the developing countries continued to bank upon public investment for their agricultural R&D during the 1990s, in the developed world, it is the private investment that dominates agricultural R&D. Private sector investment will be contingent upon stringent and facilitating IPR regime. The technology-buying disadvantages of the developing countries are thus too obvious to be emphasized. With shrinking base of the public sector and private sector investment and the research benefits not spilling over, the increasing inequality is bound to magnify inter-country technology gaps and push a big majority of the developing countries to the brink of a technological orphanage.
To access the entire article, please click here.