‘Pakistan has lowest spend on agriculture R&D’

Despite being an agrarian economy, Pakistan sets aside one of the lowest allocations to the research and development (R&D) of agriculture sector in the entire developing world, as for every $100 of agriculture output it spends only $0.21 on its R&D, which is twice less than that invested by its neighbouring India. Dr Muhammad Sharif, director general of the National Agricultural Research Center (NARC), said this in an international seminar on “Trends in Public Agricultural Research and Development Investment and Staffing in Pakistan”, organized here Tuesday by Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) and International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI) Washington DC, USA. Quoting the latest data from 2009, Sharif said the allocation to agriculture R&D in Pakistan was even below than that in 1990s. “A key challenge facing Pakistan will be to ensure that resources and capacities are more evenly distributed, both from the central government to the provinces and among the provinces themselves,” said Muhammad Sharif who is also a member of PARC. “This period of change has offered opportunities to review existing institutional structures and reassess Pakistan’s research priorities,” he added. Pakistan is far behind other countries not only in terms of R&D allocation but also human resources, he said adding the agricultural researchers account for 18 percent of PhDs in the country. More worryingly, most of these PhDs are in their fifties, increasing the need of newly recruited agriculture scientists. “Since there is a significant time lag between investing in research and reaping its rewards, agricultural R&D requires long-term commitments in sufficient and sustained funding and well-staffed research agencies,” said Gert-Jan Stads, programme coordinator Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI). Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad, chairman of PARC also stressed upon the importance of increasing R&D in the sector, and said that the country needs more investment in agricultural R&D, innovations and staffing to ensure food security. According to ASTI’s country report 2007 titled, “Agricultural Research & Development in Pakistan: Policy, Investments, and Institutional Profile”, the total number of agriculture researchers in public sector grew only slowly over the past two decades, mainly as a result of prolonged periods of recruitment restrictions. Compared to most countries in the Asia-Pacific region, average qualification levels of agricultural research staff are relatively low; only 15 percent of the country’s agricultural researchers had PhD degrees in 2003. In addition, researchers at the government agencies face limited promotion opportunities, low salary levels, and few other incentives. This has led to a brain drain of researchers from the government sector to universities, non-research agencies, or to opportunities outside Pakistan. Further, Pakistan’s agricultural R&D agencies employ only a small portion of female scientists compared to other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Prof. Jock Anderson Consultant (IFPRI) presented an independent evaluation of PARC and Anwar Naseem from McGill University Canada an insight into the role of private sector agricultural R&D in Pakistan.