International research administrator bats for more R&D funds

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna – An international agricultural research administrator has batted for the allocation of more funds for research to enable humankind to "feed the poor and help the earth".

Director General Per Pinstrup Andersen of the Washington, DC, USA-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) lamented that public support for agricultural research has declined over the past few years.

"This trend needs to be reversed," Dr. Andersen stressed in a report copies of which were distributed at the annual general meeting (AGM) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) now being held in the country.

Washington, DC, USA-based CGIAR is a strategic alliance of 16 international agricultural research centers (formally named Future Harvest Centers), 58 members (including 22 developing and 21 industrialized countries), investors, and hundreds of partner-organizations that mobilize science to benefit poor people. IFPRI is one of the 16 CGIAR centers.

This is the first time that CGIAR held its annual general meeting outside of Washington, DC.

In his report titled "We Can Feed the Poor and Help the Earth through Agricultural Research", Dr. Andersen stressed: "The donor nations must rise to this challenge. The lives of future generations and the health of our planet depend on it."

The IFPRI official further asserted: "If we are to feed the world’s rising population without devastating the world’s agricultural ecosystems, we need much more publicly funded research focused on agricultural development for small-scale farmers in developing nations. Currently, the bulk of agricultural research is financed by the private sector, and it is geared mostly toward the needs of farmers in affluent countries."

How can poor countries provide more food to the people who so desperately need it?

Putting more land under cultivation would lead to further encroachment on forests, wetlands, and wildlife reserves and would further threaten vulnerable plant and wildlife species, Andersen said.

For that reason, he emphasized that developing nations need to develop ways to augment food production without expanding the total area of farmland. But this feat must be accomplished without further degrading soils or using up water reserves.

"To make this possible, governments and aid donors must make a renewed commitment to agricultural research to develop methods of increasing the yield of crops, livestock and fisheries," the IFPRI official averred.

These methods, he further said, must be less damaging to the environments and aid donors must also expand extension programs that work with small-scale farmers to accelerate the adoption of sustainable farming practices.