The new country note released by ASTI and the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) reveals that Bangladesh’s agricultural R&D system is on a path toward great improvement, but its future requires nurturing. In recent years, there have been large fluctuations in levels of agricultural R&D investment. After peaking in 2000, public expenditures on agricultural R&D [...]

A recent survey indicated that ASTI data and information have influenced R&D budgets and policies in several African countries. International organizations have also made use of ASTI outputs. Read more @ IFPRI's Stories of Change series.

After three intense days of discussion that covered four complex themes, participants in the ASTI and FARA-led conference, Agricultural R&D—Investing in Africa’s Future: Analyzing Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities, did not solve the myriad challenges laid out on the conference table. But the important event that took place in Accra, Ghana December 5-7 did succeed in [...]

ASTI has recently released three subregional reports published jointly with the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in East and Central Africa (ASARECA), the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF/WECARD), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). These reports assess trends in investments and human resource capacity in public agricultural research [...]

The preliminary program for the ASTI/IFPRI—FARA conference Agricultural R&D—Investing in Africa’s Future: Analyzing Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities has now been posted on the conference website. Please sign up to receive the latest updates on the conference at the conference blog or follow ASTI on twitter.

Two reports were recently released by the United Nations that discussed recent agricultural R&D trends and the need for increased support: The Report of the Secretary General on Agricultural Technology for Development and the World Economic and Social Survey 2011: The Great Green Technological Transformation. ASTI data and publications were featured in both reports.

FAO recently released a report on Looking Ahead in World Food and Agriculture: Perspectives to 2050. The report features a chapter, Setting meaningful investment targets in agricultural research and development: challenges, opportunities and fiscal realities, by ASTI Program Leader Nienke Beintema and Howard Elliott. The chapter discusses: The problem of underinvestment in agricultural R&D The [...]

Full time-series dataset available for Sub-Saharan African countries ASTI is pleased to announce that all available data for its recent Sub-Saharan Africa survey round are now ready to download from the ASTI Data Tool. The new data cover 31 countries over the period 2001–08, and include indicators such as research staff levels and public expenditures [...]

According to the latest country note by ASTI and the Rwanda Agricultural Research Institute (ISAR), Rwandan agricultural research agencies have been rehabilitated since the first half of the 1990s, but challenges still remain. Agricultural research capacity grew modestly between 2005 and 2009, from 100 to 116 full-time equivalent (FTE) researchers. This growth mainly occurred in [...]

The new country note released by ASTI and the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) points out that the 2002 completion of the Agricultural Research and Extension Project (AREP), a World Bank–financed project, led to a sharp decline in Nepal’s agricultural research and development (R&D) investment levels. Although spending rebounded somewhat during 2003–09, total agricultural R&D [...]