Economic Impacts Of International Agricultural Research: Case Of Us-Egypt-Irri Collaborative Project On The Generation Of New Rice Technologies

Agricultural research managers and scientists are under increasing pressure to demonstrate the efficient and socially-effective use of funds spent on agricultural R&D. These pressures stem from heightened expectations of transparency and accountability in the use of public funds, as well as from the growing demand for evidence of impact on target social groups and environmental services. Finally, advances in agricultural biotechnology research and the ensuing dialogue about the desirability of using biotechnology tools for increasing food production in developing countries have highlighted the need to assess the impacts of international agricultural research in the US, the developing countries, and the international agricultural research centers (IARCs). The US-Egypt ATUT project, funding involves collaborative research among plant breeders, molecular geneticists, and other agricultural scientists in the US, Egypt and IRRI. ATUT rice research accelerated the utilization of three methods for improving the speed and reliability of the screening and evaluation process for identifying salt resistant varieties: shuttle breeding, anther culture and marker-assisted selection. ATUT initiated the application of Marker Assisted Selection (MAS) technology for screening Egyptian rice germplasm. Other ATUT rice technologies in the pipeline have various levels of AATUTness in their research and development. Some of the varieties to be released starting 2003 such as short duration HYVs, will have benefitted less directly from ATUT funding and scientific collaboration. Others- such as hybrid rice varieties will have been very significantly shaped by ATUT. The DREAM model under IFPRI's Global and Regional Program on Agricultural Science and Technology Policy, is used to assess the potential economic benefit of technology outputs for rice, under a range of likely adoption, market and trade scenarios. The simulation model, based on economic surplus theory, uses data and parameters from interviews with scientists, policy makers on the impact and adoption of technology. For this study, ex-ante simulations of the most likely range of outcomes with and without the innovations from ATUT investments. Analyzing the impact of technical change (a simulation over a specified number of years) has provided year-by year estimates of changes in: prices, quantities produced, consumed and traded, levels of adoption, economic benefits to consumers, economic benefits to adopters or losses (non-adopters) to producers. For US and IRRI benefits: Enhanced germplasm pool, stock of knowledge and facilities, and better informed scientists. US scientists in California and Arkansas benefit More integrated into the international rice research community. Gross benefits are estimated for governorates, by producers and consumers, by saline and normal soils, for 1997 to 2017 (end of GoE's current strategic horizon) discounted to 1997 US$. Producers in normal soils derive higher benefits than those in saline soils, some governorates reap more of the producer benefits than others; rural consumers benefit more than urban consumers. Consumer benefits are also estimated for importers of Egyptian rice such as Turkey, Sudan and aggregated Arabian countries. Cost of rice R&D and technology transfer will be measured to derive the IRR and B/C ratios.