Assessing the Impact of Agricultural R&D Investments on Long-Term Projections of Food Security

Zuzana Smeets Kristkova, Michiel van Dijk and Hans Meijl

A chapter in World Agricultural Resources and Food Security, 2017, vol. 17, pp 1-17 from Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Abstract: The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the impact of public agricultural Research and Development (R&D) investments on agricultural productivity and long-term food security to derive policy recommendations. The methodological approach is based on the application of the state-of-the art Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model to R&D. By endogenizing R&D in global CGE models, it is possible to assess the impact of different public R&D policies on the food availability and food access of food security. This study found that R&D investments bring positive effects on the food access dimension of food security, particularly in places such as Sub-Saharan Africa where prices are expected to grow significantly by 2050, as agricultural land becomes scarcer and more expensive. Doubling the R&D intensity would soften the land constraints and substantially decelerate food prices, thus preventing the deterioration of living standards of rural households and leading to a gain in daily caloric consumption. The impact of alternative agricultural R&D policies on the various dimensions of food security has not been analyzed using a CGE framework, which enables capturing both the benefits and costs from R&D investments. Modeling the dynamic accumulation of R&D stocks makes it possible to analyze the effects of R&D on food security over time.

Keywords: Agricultural productivity; CGE model; food security; land-augmenting technical change; MAGNET; public agricultural R&D investments; D5; Q16; Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:fegzzz:s1574-871520170000017001

DOI: 10.1108/S1574-871520170000017001

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