ISPC Science Forum 2016, Addis Ababa, 12-14 April 2016

1. How Policies, Institutions, and Markets Either Facilitate or
Hinder Contribution of Agricultural Research to Rural
prosperity: Report of the breakout session

2. Overview
• Main purpose: understand
different pathways for
agricultural research to
contribute to rural
prosperity, and how policy
makes a difference.
• Pathways:
– Direct (income)
– Indirect (economy-wide)
– Intra-household impacts
• Context specific: Two
presentations about
Ethiopia’s experience

3. Key take aways from Ethiopian context
• Agricultural growth the major (but not the only) engine
for poverty reduction over past decade
– Safety nets also contributed
– Economy-wide impacts through service sector growth
• Four key drivers of growth
– Land/labour expansion
– Intensification of inputs
– Technical change (agricultural research)
– Complementary investments: roads, infrastructure,
education
• Impacts seen in income and wealth, but also in child
nutrition, cognitive development

4. Key policy considerations for direct,
economy-wide, and intrahousehold
• Investment in agricultural research (all disciplines) necessary
• Access to land, water, inputs, output markets
• Complementary public investments
• Modes of public support vary (subsidies a mixed bag, infrastructure,
education, safety nets high payoffs)
• Policy-oriented research and strong evidence enrich dialogue and
improve feedback loops
• Policies have differentiated impacts – understand winners and loser
– equity aspects – mechanisms to address impacts – social equity
essential
• Politics and the policy process matter
• Support to local institutions and fiscal decentralization