Meta Evaluation of the CGIAR

Meta Evaluation of the CGIAR

There is a long article in Science magazine this week, titled "Lab Network Eyes Closer Ties For Tackling World Hunger". It describes the major reorganization being considered to bring new techniques in biotechnology into the forefront of crop research in the international agricultural research centers (IARCs) overseen by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

A part of the motivation for this movement came from the meta-evaluation of the CGIAR system cited above.

I can't go into the full detail here, but the overall impression I got is that the IARCs have strayed away from their fundamental purpose of crop improvement, encouraged by evaluation after evaluation to add some nice new element to their program -- probably according to the fad of the day. Part of the problem of course is the stingy flow of foreign assistance, and the tendency to use the resources linked to the CGIAR for new things "because they are there". The added program elements came at the expense of crop research, and basic science applications in crop research took a back place to shorter term, more applied efforts.

As a result, the IARCs have spent only some $25 million on biotechnology in the 1990's. By comparison, private industry and universities spent some $8 to $10 billion on agricultural biotechnology in the 1990s.

Agriculture, and especially growing crops is still the major economic effort in developing countries, and a whole lot more production is going to have to come from existing acreage to meet the population and economic needs of coming decades. It is really too bad if our emphasis on rational evaluation has had the ultimate effect of weakening our most vital agriculturall research program.