United Kingdom
November 5, 2015

An economic analysis attempting to quantify the cumulative impact Rothamsted Research has had, suggests that the value of its annual contribution to feeding the nation is in excess of £3bn a year. 

Foreword to the report by the Director & Chief Executive Professor Achim Dobermann 

Assessing the impact of agricultural research is difficult because science is a complex and lengthy process, with pathways to impact that vary widely. It is common that research and development stages towards new technologies and know-how last 15 or even more years, followed by many more years for reaching peak adoption by farmers and other users of new technology. Adoption is often slow and diffuse, also because unlike in manufacturing many agricultural innovations need to be tailored to specific biophysical and even socioeconomic environments. Some of the many impact pathways may be known well, whereas others are not or are very difficult to quantify. Attribution presents another problem, i.e., it is often very difficult to quantify how much of the observed technological progress or other impact can be attributed to a specific innovation or an institution. Progress in productivity and efficiency is the result of many factors, including technology, knowledge and policy. Even more difficult is to assess the impact of agricultural technology on a wider range of ecosystem services and consumer benefits.

Nevertheless, in science we need to be willing to rigorously assess the relevance of our research. In his report, Sean Rickard has attempted to quantify the cumulative impact Rothamsted Research has had through key impact pathways that are most directly linked to its research. The economic approach used is in my view sound, providing a robust framework and a first overall estimate of the wider impact. Therein lies the main value of this study: it highlights the tremendous value of agricultural research. It has been demonstrated numerous times that rates of return on investment in agricultural R&D are high in both developed and developing countries, that spill over of innovations among countries is substantial, and that investments in R&D often have large, long-lasting cross-sectoral growth benefits 1-7.  

Therefore, the results in their entirety are not surprising to me, although many assumptions had to be made and various potential impacts could not be included or assessed properly. We are aware that this can only be a starting point for improving the assessment of our impact in the future. This report will guide us in that, and it will also be of great value for developing our future science strategy. We will need to put better systems in place that will allow us to fill many of the data gaps and reduce uncertainties about key assumptions made. Hence, I invite everyone to contribute to a discussion on that or even come and work with us on it. We owe it to all our stakeholders to be held accountable for our research by being able to demonstrate impact in the real world. This report is meant to stimulate further discussion on how to achieve that.

The Executive Summary and the full report can be downloaded.

   1      Alston, J.M., Andersen, M.A., James, J.S. & Pardey, P.G. Persistence pays: U.S. agricultural productivity growth and the benefits from public R&D spending. (Springer, New York, 2010).

   2      Alston, J.M., Andersen, M.A., James, J.S. & Pardey, P.G. The economic returns to U.S. Public agricultural research. Am. J. Agric. Econ. 93, 1257-1277 (2011).

   3      Bertini, C. & Glickman, D. Advancing global food security: the power of science, trade, and business. (The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Chicago, 2013).

   4      Fuglie, K.O., Wang, S.L. & Ball, V.E. Productivity growth in agriculture: an international perspective. (CABI, Wallingford, UK, 2012).

   6      Renkow, M. & Byerlee, D. The impacts of CGIAR research: A review of recent evidence. Food Policy 35, 391-402 (2010).

   7      Stevenson, J.R., Villoria, N., Byerlee, D., Kelley, T. & Maredia, M. Green Revolution research saved an estimated 18 to 27 million hectares from being brought into agricultural production. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 110, 8363-8368 (2013).

Website: http://www.rothamsted.bbsrc.ac.uk

Published: November 5, 2015