The growing role of the private sector in agricultural research and development world-wide

The private sector is playing an important role in developing technologies to raise productivity in agriculture. This paper presents new estimates of private agricultural and food R&D spending trends over the past 25 years. Global private spending on agricultural R&D (excluding R&D by food industries) rose from $5.1billion in 1990 to $15.6billion by 2014. Private R&D investment accelerated as agricultural commodity prices began to rise in 2003. Although the companies that account for most agricultural R&D spending are based in developed countries, their technologies have considerable and growing importance for developing countries. Some implications of these trends for public R&D policy are discussed.