Pro-poor agricultural biotechnology: Can the international research system deliver the goods?

While global investment in agricultural research by the private sector is increasing with growth in developing country markets and the emergence of new technologies, complementary public sector investment is stagnating or declining in many developing countries. This review argues that the changing roles of the public and private sectors in generating new scientific knowledge may adversely affect the diffusion of explicitly pro-poor technologies—technologies that are simultaneously yield-enhancing and poverty-reducing. Comparing historical evidence from the Green Revolution with recent evidence from the emerging era of agricultural biotechnology, this review argues that a more pluralistic international system for agricultural research will be more responsive to poverty only if the strategic leadership role of the public sector is strengthened, certain research functions are reallocated to the private sector, and new policy and organizational mechanisms are used to stimulate pro-poor research in and for developing-country agriculture.