Assessing the impact of agricultural R&D investments on long-term projections of food security

Abstract

Copyright textcopyright 2017 by Emerald Publishing Limited. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the impact of public agricultural Research and Development (R & D) investments on agricultural productivity and long-term food security to derive policy recommendations. The methodological approach is based on the application of the state-of-the art Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model to R & D. By endogenizing R & D in global CGE models, it is possible to assess the impact of different public R & D policies on the food availability and food access of food security. This study found that R & D investments bring positive effects on the food access dimension of food security, particularly in places such as Sub-Saharan Africa where prices are expected to grow significantly by 2050, as agricultural land becomes scarcer and more expensive. Doubling the R & D intensity would soften the land constraints and substantially decelerate food prices, thus preventing the deterioration of living standards of rural households and leading to a gain in daily caloric consumption. The impact of alternative agricultural R & D policies on the various dimensions of food security has not been analyzed using a CGE framework, which enables capturing both the benefits and costs from R & D investments. Modeling the dynamic accumulation of R & D stocks makes it possible to analyze the effects of R & D on food security over time.

Type

Related