Taking Stock of Agricultural R&D Capacity and Investment in India and Beyond

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)New Delhi, August 2016

Gert-Jan StadsSenior Program Manager, ASTI

Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators

ASTI’s three programmatic components

DATA COLLECTION AND SYNTHESIS

ANALYSISOUTREACH AND

ADVOCACY

Identified 215 public Indian agencies involved in agricultural R&D:

• 107 ICAR agencies

• 31 other government agencies

• 77 universities

• Includes research on crops, livestock, fisheries, forestry, postharvest, socio-economics, etc.

• Private-sector was excluded

• Financial data include salaries, operating, and capital costs

• Financial time-series data are adjusted for inflation

• Human resource data were FTE-adjusted

ASTI / NAARM survey in India

Rebound of agricultural research capacity

Institutional structure of agricultural research

Researcher quantity and quality

India73%

Bangladesh35%

Sri Lanka23%

Pakistan21%

Nepal14%

PhD-qualified researchers as a share of total agricultural researchers

0.0

4.0

8.0

12.0

16.0

20.0

Nepal(2012)

India(2014)

Bangladesh(2012)

Pakistan(2012)

Sri Lanka(2009)

FTE researchers per 100,000 farmers

4.6

Distribution of researchers by gender

Women are severely underrepresented in agricultural R&D in many Asian countries.

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Bangladesh

Cambodia

India

Lao PDR

Malaysia

Nepal

Pakistan

Sri Lanka

Share of total researchers

Female Male

Steady growth in Indian agricultural R&D spending

59.2 billion rupees(current prices)

2014

974 million US$(current prices)

Indian research spending in an Asian context

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

16,000

2000 2005 2010 2013

Mill

ion

PP

P d

olla

rs

(in

flat

ion

-ad

just

ed;

bas

e ye

ar =

20

11

)

China India Indonesia Other Asia

Note: Other Asia includes Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Agricultural research spending as a % of AgGDP

0.00

0.05

0.10

0.15

0.20

0.25

0.30

0.35

0.40

2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014

0.34%0.30%

China 0.62%India 0.30%Bangladesh 0.37%Nepal 0.28%Pakistan 0.18%

India

Is India underinvesting in agricultural research?

India aims to invest 1% of its AgGDP in agricultural research

and education as stipulated in its Twelfth Five Year Plan

(2012-2017)

Although data on agricultural education expenditures are

not available, data on agricultural research expenditures

suggest that India’s 1-percent investment target is unlikely to

be met within the stipulated timeframe.

R&D expenditure as a percentage of agricultural GDP is a

misleading measure to compare agricultural research effort

at the country level.

Why are intensity ratios misleading?

Agricultural research spending as a % of agricultural GDP

ASTI’s alternative: The intensity index

The literature shows that the capacity of countries to invest does not

depend only on the size of the agricultural sector but also on structural

variables like income and the size of the economy.

As a result, the capacity of countries to invest changes with the

particular level and combination of the three variables.

ASTI therefore proposes a multifactor indicator of R&D intensity that

combines three different partial intensity ratios:

-R&D to AgGDP

- R&D to GDP

- R&D to GDP per capita

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) defines the weights to aggregate

the three partial measures into a multifactor measure of R&D

investment intensity. It yields most favorable, country-specific weights

for the different components.

ASTI’s alternative: The intensity index (cont’d)

Countries with the same mix of inputs are expected to show similar level of R&D investment.

On the other hand, differences in investment between countries with similar mix of inputs will indicate higher “productivity” by the country with higher investment. In this case, higher “productivity” means that the country is investing more than expected given its particular mix of inputs.

This allows us to calculate the R&D intensity gap: the difference between R&D investment of a particular country and the highest investment among all countries with the same mix of GDP, AgGDP and income than the analyzed country.

The two intensity ratios compared, 2001-2011

country

Sri Lanka

Lao PDR

Vietnam

Thailand

Nepal

Pakistan

Indonesia

Malaysia

India

China

Romania

Greece0.03125

0.0625

0.125

0.25

0.5

1

2

0.0625 0.125 0.25 0.5 1 2 4 8

R&

D I

nte

nsi

ty In

dex

UsA

20

05

=1

Intensity Ratio (R&D/AgGDP)

East & South Asia High Income SSA WANA Latin America & Caribbean

Netherlands

USA

GermanyFrance

Japan

Gabon

BelgiumNorway

BotswanaMauritius

Malaysia

Madagascar

Brazil

UgandaKenyaIran

Nigeria

Sudan

GuatemalaEl SalvadorParaguayZimbabwe

Vietnam

China

Bangladesh

Ethiopia India

MalawiIndonesia

Honduras

Zambia

Niger

Nepal

Pakistan

Dominican Rep.

Other ASTI outputs

Interactive representation of data

Links to factsheet, key indicators, institutional profiles

Easy cross-country comparisons

Data and graphs can be downloaded on the spot

Country pages are continuously being expanded

Interactive Country Pageswww.asti.cgiar.org/india

Comparison of key ASTI indicators across countries

Rank countries by indicator

Data download facilities

Also developing state-level benchmarking tool

Country benchmarking toolwww.asti.cgiar.org/benchmarking/south-asia

More granular data than country pages and benchmarking tool

Data, graph, and map download facilities

Additional indicators/elements will be added later on

Data download toolwww.asti.cgiar.org/data

Geographic location of agencies

Institutional details

Key agency-level indicators

Country agency directorywww.asti.cgiar.org/india

Final Thoughts

Institutionalizing ASTI

Enhancing private-sector coverage

Measuring use and impact of ASTI in India

Please visit:www.asti.cgiar.org/india