Promoting Agricultural Value Chains
In the OIC Member Countries
57
4.5 Agricultural research and technology policies
Agricultural research & development (R&D) can make a significant contribution to increasing
agricultural production and thereby contribute to economic growth and food security, and
adapt to emerging challenges, such as water scarcity, increasing weather variability, and price
volatility in global markets.
Many OIC Member Countries have a decent R&D infrastructure for the agricultural sciences,
and specialised agricultural research stations exist in every OIC Member Country. However,
according to a recent study by Alpay (2014), OIC countries are lagging behind developed
countries in terms of putting agricultural R&D into use, because public budgets for agricultural
R&D are declining significantly and private funds are short in supply. During the period 2000-
2008, agricultural spending of the public sector in OIC Member Countries was around US$ 2.3
billion per year compared to US$ 7.5 billion per year in other developing countries. This
translated into an average agricultural spending per agricultural person of only US $5.2 in the
OIC countries, whereas other developing countries spent an average of US $7.5 per agricultural
person (Alpay, 2014).
Consequently, many R&D agencies in OIC Member Countries lack the necessary human,
operating, and infrastructural resources to successfully develop, adapt, and disseminate
science and technology innovations. This leads to critical gaps in R&D in OIC Member
Countries, resulting in the following weaknesses of agricultural production (Alpay, 2014):
1) Low productivity in agriculture
 Inefficient use of land and increasing land degradation;
 Low levels of average machinery and technology and input utilization;
 Low levels of genetic improvement in crop and livestock varieties.
2) Water scarcity
 Overuse and degradation of water resources;
 Severe water pressures, particularly in West Asia and North-East Africa, due to limited
opportunities for the exploitation of new water resources.
3) Inefficient irrigation
 Widespread use of surface irrigation, which is the most traditional and least water-
saving technique (practiced on more than 82 percent of the total area equipped for
irrigation);
 Large amount of water run-off or percolation and high economic costs.
4) Climate change
 High vulnerability of many OIC countries to expected climate change, particularly
African and Asian countries due to their geographic location, higher prevalence of
undernourishment and low financial capacity to adapt and mitigate the negative
impacts of climate change;
 Vulnerability particularly in terms of increased water stress (lower levels of
precipitation and higher temperatures), erratic weather events such as floods or
droughts, and increased proliferation of pests;
 Overall, most OIC Member Countries are expected to experience high production
losses.