Economic impacts of international agricultural research:
Case of US-Egypt-IRRI collaborative project on the
generation of new rice technologies
Annual Meeting of the American Agricultural Economics Association
Long Beach, July 28-31, 2002
Clemen Gehlhar, USDA, Foreign Agricultural Service,
Latha Nagarajan, University of Minnesota
and
Stanley Wood, International Food Policy Research Institute
I. Introduction
Agricultural research managers and scientists are under increasing pressure to demonstrate the
efficient and socially-effective use of funds spent on agricultural R&D. These pressures stem
from heightened expectations of transparency and accountability in the use of public funds, as
well as from the growing demand for evidence of impact on target social groups and
environmental services. Finally, advances in agricultural biotechnology research and the ensuing
dialogue about the desirability of using biotechnology tools for increasing food production in
developing countries have highlighted the need to assess the impacts of international agricultural
research in developed countries such as the US, the developing countries, and the international
agricultural research centers (IARCs). This paper attempts to assess the economic impacts of
international collaborative research among scientists in the US, Egypt and an IARC, focusing on
the technology generated by the application of biotechnology tools in rice research and on the
benefits to Egypt.
Rice Sector in Egypt
In Egypt, rice is grown during the summer season in the irrigated agricultural lands. Rice is
grown in sequence with winter crops of which clover (berseem) is the most important but wheat,
broad beans; sugar beets, etc. are also common. In summer, rice is also grown in sequence with
cotton and maize. The medium grain “Japonica” variety comprises approximately 85 percent of
the rice crop and is preferred by Egyptian consumers to the higher-yielding, long grain
“Phillipini” vari