Agricultural R&D spending has been growing at an average annual rate of 1.8% in the past two decades, with the number of agricultural researchers growing even faster, according to new data from the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
According to research from the FAO, global public expenditure on agricultural R&D stood at $50.4 billion in 2023, up from $35.9 billion in 2004. In 2023 there were the equivalent of 316,000 full-time experts engaged in publicly funded agricultural R&D - up from 204,000 in 2004. According to the FAO, these figures encompass a “relative surge since 2009 after sluggish expansion in the first decade of the millennium.”
Agricultural R&D matters because it is linked with lowering food prices and increasing economic returns. It is key to improving resource utilisation, lowering carbon footprints and producing more output from less land, labour and chemicals - and helping key food crops to adapt to changing environmental conditions, the FAO said.
When it came to the global spread of agricultural researchers engaged in public R&D, Asia accounted for 45% of the total during 2023, followed by Europe at 24%, Americas with 14%, Africa with 13% and Oceania which accounted for 3%. The FAO indicates that public spending on research across these regions was broadly similar to the pattern seen in the number of researchers, with Asia accounting for 48% of public global R&D expenditure, followed by the Americas (22%) Europe, (20%) Africa (8%) and Oceania (3%).
The fastest growth in public R&D expenditure was found in Central Asia, followed by East and South Asia, while Southern Europe recorded the largest declined in spending on agricultural R&D.
These findings are based on data from the FAO’s FAOSTAT portal, which represents the development, expansion and an upgrade to a service that started in 1981 and is now supported with a grant from the Gates Foundation. The FAO says that Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators, such as those contained in FAOSTAT, are in demand to assess research performance and impact, and to set policy and investment priorities to increase agricultural growth and productivity.
The FAO said the data from the new portal will help strengthen evidence-based policy-making and advocacy for more effective agricultural research systems.
Its chief statistician José Rosero Moncayo said: "It addresses a longstanding gap by providing, for the first time, a regular, globally agreed framework to monitor agricultural R&D. This represents an important milestone, enabling countries to set and track commitments on investment and research capacity through a harmonised measure of national efforts that generate benefits for all, recognising science and technology as global public goods.”
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