Table 1-4. Total public agricultural research expenditures in sub-Saharan Africa.

Note: The total includes 44 sub-Saharan African countries. Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa were the only countries that spent
over $100 million (2000 international dollars) in 2000. The research capacity of 17 countries was estimated in line with their
share of total agricultural output.
^aSpending data are expressed in international financial data and were converted to 2000 international dollars by deflating current
local currency units with local GDP deflator (base year 2000) and then converted to international dollars using a 2000
purchasing power parity (PPP) index. PPP’s are synthetic exchange rates used to reflect the purchasing power of currencies,
typically comparing prices among a broader range of goods and services than conventional exchange rates.
bAnnual growth rates are calculated using the least-squares regression method, which takes into account all observations in a
period. This results in growth rates that reflect general trends that are not disproportionately influenced by exceptional values,
especially at the end point of the period.
Source: Beintema and Stads, 2006; Pardey et al., 2006.

(Table 1-4). As a result sub-Saharan Africa’s share in total spending on agricultural R&D worldwide declined from 8% in 1981 to 6% two decades later. This is a contrasting trend with that of other regions in the developing world that experienced an increase in their global shares. In 2000, sub-Saharan Africa’s public agricultural R&D spending totaled $1.5 billion (in 2000 international dollars). The three largest systems, in terms of expenditures, accounted for more than 40% of the regional total.

 The role of the private sector in R&D in SSA is still small and many of the private-sector activities focus solely on the provision of input technologies or technological services for agricultural production, with most of these technologies being produced in industrialized countries. In 2000, private firms in sub-Saharan Africa invested $26 million in agricultural R&D, representing only 2% of total public and private research investments; almost two thirds of the private-sector investment was done in South Africa.

 The regional averages on agricultural R&D spending mask considerable differences among the 27 sub-Saharan countries for which time series data were available (Table 1-5). More than half of these sample countries spent less on public agricultural R&D in 2000 than 10 years earlier. Growth rates in Burundi, the Republic of Congo, and Sudan were below negative 10%, for example. Declines were

the result of the completion of large donor-funded projects (Burkina Faso, Guinea, Madagascar, Niger, Togo, and Zambia) or political unrest (Burundi and Sudan).

 Agricultural research in sub-Saharan Africa became increasingly dependent on donor funding toward 2000; but it appears that the share of donor contributions in total funding declined in the later half of the 1990s—at least for the 23 countries for which detailed data were available. These declines resulted in part from the completion of a large number of World Bank projects in support of agricultural R&D or the agricultural sector at large. Donor contributions (including World Bank loans) accounted for an average of 35% of funding to principal agricultural research agencies in 2000. These regional averages mask great variation among countries. In 2000, donor funding accounted for more than half of the agricultural R&D funding in 7 of the 23 countries. Eritrea, in particular, was highly dependent on donor contributions. Its principal agricultural research agency received more than three-quarters of its funding from donors. In contrast, donor funding was virtually insignificant in Botswana, Malawi, Mauritius, and Sudan (under 5%). Funding through sources other than government or donors, such as internally generated revenues, was relatively small, representing 11% of total funding in 2000 (Beintema and Stads, 2006).