GHANA
• R&D spending more than doubled from 2000–08 due to rising salary costs at the agencies of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and increased funding for the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana. Research staff also grew steadily, albeit at a much slower rate than expenditures.
• Despite growth in research capacity, many agencies face an aging pool of scientists and a hiring ban that threaten R&D capacity levels, which could erode the numerous training efforts of the past decade.
• During 2000–08, research was primarily funded by the government, donors, and development banks.
• The higher education sector is playing an increasingly important role in Ghana’s agricultural R&D, but nonprofit and for-profit companies play a minimal role.
GUINEA
• Agricultural R&D expenditures have fallen gradually since 2000 due to cuts in government funding and reduced donor and development bank support, especially to the Guinean Institute for Agricultural Research (IRAG), the main R&D agency.
• From 2000-08, IRAG—which accounts for two-thirds of the country’s agricultural research staff and R&D expenditures—was largely dependent on funding from France and World Bank loans.
• R&D agencies face a bleak future due to the country’s current political climate. Foreign donors are largely unwilling to support projects and agencies are finding it increasingly difficult to secure other funding.
• R&D spending as a share of agricultural GDP is one of the lowest in Africa. The government needs to increase funding considerably so that R&D agencies can promote food security and poverty reduction.
KENYA
• Public agricultural research in Kenya is well-funded and staffed relative to many other African countries. It has one of the highest ratios of total spending as a percentage of agricultural GDP in the region and attracts large sums of funding from donors and development banks.
• Public R&D spending has varied yearly, especially at the main agency, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), due to fluctuations in funding from the government, donors and development banks.
• Kenya has made major progress in terms of hiring and training female researchers. Overall, the number of researchers and their average qualification levels have steadily increased in recent years.
• However, increasing numbers of agricultural scientists are approaching retirement age, and staff retention has become a major concern for KARI and other government agencies.
MADAGASCAR
• The completion of a large World Bank-funded project in 1999 prompted a sudden decline in Madagascar’s overall agricultural R&D expenditures.
• Spending levels have recovered somewhat in recent years due to in-kind technical support and expatriate research staff from the French Agricultural Research Center for International Development (CIRAD).
• The National Center of Applied Research and Rural Development (FOFIFA) is the country’s main agricultural research agency. Its share of national R&D expenditures fell from 69 percent in 1998 to 43 percent in 2008, and FOFIFA remains highly dependent on funding from donors and development banks.
• Without a major increase in funding, Madagascar’s current levels of agricultural R&D investment and capacity could quickly erode along with other gains made in the past 15 years.
• A key priority is providing training for its younger scientists, since many senior researchers will soon retire.
MALI
• Agricultural R&D spending and capacity levels have been highly erratic, reflecting annual fluctuations in donor and development bank funding and the ensuing waves of recruitment and layoffs.
• Unlike many African countries, Mali’s agricultural research is highly centralized. Its main R&D agency, the Rural Economy Institute (IER), accounted for roughly 80 percent of all agricultural researchers and expenditures in 2008.
• Donor-supported training programs played a crucial role in increasing IER’s number of PhD-level researchers by 50 percent in 2008. In the higher education sector, overall qualifications also rose.
• The aging of Mali’s agricultural research staff, many of whom will reach retirement age in the next decade, is a major concern. Recruiting and training young researchers is a matter of urgency.
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