Biotech Updates

Monpellier Conference Helps Shape Agricultural Research Agenda

April 16, 2010

About 1,000 participants joined the first Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development in Montpellier, France held last March 28-31, 2010. Partners and stakeholders of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) shared insights to help shape a new agricultural research agenda and stop underinvestment in research. Transforming Agricultural Research for Development, a report prepared for the conference by a team led by Uma Lele, noted that while the CGIAR accounts for only 4-5% of total public expenditure worldwide, efforts are too fragmented.

Among the insights regarding the agricultural research agenda include:

  • greater partnership at the national and regional levels
  • inclusion of gender as "non-negotiable"
  • greater investment in research must be combined with scaled-up development efforts
  • call for strengthened capacity for national agricultural research systems
  • bottom up research agenda setting
  • putting poor farmers and food providers at the center of agricultural research at the international, regional and national levels
The CGIAR coverage is at http://www.cgiar.org/changemanagement/embracingchange2/embracing_change_april8_2010.html For further information on the CGIAR reform process visit http://www.cgiar.org/changemanagement/index.html.