2000 was by private firms and the remaining 64% by public agencies. Most of the private R&D investment (about 93%) was in rich countries and is extremely limited in developing countries at 6.3%. In industrialized countries 54% of the agricultural R&D is private; in developing countries, it is predominantly public and there are large disparities in the private contribution figures among the different regions of the developing countries. In the Asia-Pacific region, nearly 8% of the agricultural R&D investments are private compared with 3.5% in the Middle East and North Africa region. Among developing countries, private investment in agricultural R&D is lowest (1.7%) in sub-Saharan Africa (Table 2-17).

This pattern of private contributions to agricultural R&D investments has important implications for the intensity of agricultural research in all countries. In 2000, developing countries as a group had an agricultural R&D intensity ratio of 0.53% compared with 5.16% for industrial countries. This results in an intensity ratio of 9.2:1 compared with a 4.5:1 ratio if only public research investment were considered (Pardey et al., 2006a). Previous information on agricultural R&D expenditures suggests the following conclusions:

• There has been a slowdown of support for publicly funded agricultural research among developed countries. This is partially attributed to a shifting emphasis from publicly to privately funded agricultural R&D and to a shift in government spending priorities. In developing countries, including CWANA countries, the public sector undertakes most of the investment in agricultural R&D. The contribution of private funding is and will continue to be, limited. Thus, the public sector needs to fund future expansion in agricultural R&D investments.
• There is a clear reorientation of agricultural R&D in industrialized countries away from intensifying productivity in food staples toward concerns over the environmental effects of agriculture, as well as food quality and medical, energy and industrial applications of agricultural commodities. Such research reorientation has important implications for the links between industrialized and developing countries in improving the productivity of staples, which is still a priority research area for developing countries. This is particularly in line with

current trends in research expenditure of international agricultural research centers toward environmental sustainability and policy at the expense of research on increasing productivity.

• Although limited, most private agricultural R&D in developing countries is oriented toward research on crop improvement or on export crops such as cotton, corn and sugar cane. This implies that the private R&D contribution is expected to stay minimal in research to increase productivity of staple crops. Publicly funded agricultural R&D will continue as the main source of such research in CWANA countries.

2.6.2 Options and insights for making more effective use of agricultural science and technology

To enhance the effectiveness of public investments in agricultural science and technology in the CWANA region, we suggest the following:

Enhance technology strategies and priority setting. CWANA countries are invited to develop their strategies and research priority settings in line with their comparative advantages, resource endowments and contribution to the developmental goals of poverty alleviation, food security enhancement and natural resource sustainability. Regional research priorities for CWANA have already been developed by ICARDA in 2002 (Belaid et al., 2003). New efforts to orient national research priorities in CWANA countries need to capitalize on the new research focus of international agricultural research centers (represented by the CGIAR centers), which is directed toward agricultural development in developing countries.

Define options and opportunities for optimizing the contribution of agricultural R&D and determine the best application of resources to meet research priorities.

Develop and maintain appropriate agricultural science and technology databases. These include quantitative and qualitative information on changing research and funding environments as well as national, regional and global institutional changes.

Identify complementary roles of different research partners, including NARS, advanced research institutions and CGIAR centers. ICARDA in its R&D continuum clearly draws the roles of different partners in the whole