Researchers publish plea for increased farm-oriented R and D

By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press

The growth of the world's agricultural productivity will continue to wane unless more resources are put into research and development, a trio of researchers has concluded.

In a paper in the journal Science, researchers Julian Alston of the University of California-Davis and Philip Pardey and Jason Beddow of the University of Minnesota note a decline in the growth rate of major food crops such as corn, rice, wheat and soybeans.

They blame a number of factors for this decline, including climate change, land degradation, government policies, higher input costs and shifts to less-productive crops.

But a lack of adequate public and private investment in research, along with a shift in research emphasis, are major culprits for the lack of growth, said Alston, an agricultural economist at UC-Davis.

"One of the subtle and nasty consequences of slower productivity growth is that ... people are still going to want to eat, and they'll cut down rainforests faster" to create more farmland rather than becoming more efficient with the land they have, Alston said in an interview.

"With the climate change happening, we're going to have to do more farm-oriented R and D just to adapt to deal with changes in weather patterns to maintain productivity," he said.

The scientists' findings resulted from a study funded by the universities of California and Minnesota, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Their solution is to urge the U.S. government and other nations, as well as the private sector, to invest more in farm productivity research -- a solution Alston realizes could be a tough sell amid a recession and tight budgets.

"I'm hopeful that the government will recognize it's a good idea," he said. "What we try to do is ... share just what a good investment it is. It's an astonishingly good investment of public money."

One idea, he said, is for governments to adopt programs similar to one in Australia, where the government matches dollar-for-dollar contributions to checkoff-type producer levies for research.

In the U.S., some research and development dollars for agriculture has been redirected from productivity toward food safety and quality as well as for medical, energy and industrial uses, the researchers say.

Alston has no quarrel with those studies, but he said productivity research has maintained yields as new pests, diseases and other environmental problems have arisen. This research has also resulted in more abundant supplies of food at more affordable prices, which reduce pressure on natural resources.

"It's connected in various ways," Alston said. "Sure, some of what we do in farm productivity has clear implications for food safety and quality and other implications."

Staff writer Tim Hearden is based in Shasta Lake, Calif. E-mail: thearden@capitalpress.com.

Online

To read the scientists' report, "Agricultural Research, Productivity, and Food Prices in the Long Run" in the September issue of the journal Science, visit www.sciencemag.org .