Agricultural R&D Investment and Capacity in the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) Region

ASTI is pleased to announce the launch of a new survey round in the WANA region, thanks to a grant from the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The WANA region faces critical limitations on land and water resources for agriculture while experiencing rapid growth in population and food demand. The extent to which countries in this region will be able to meet their own food security needs will depend on how well they manage their food and agricultural policies, especially their investments in agricultural R&D and related S&T policies.

Information on recent agricultural R&D trends are currently unavailable or out of date for nearly all of the countries in the WANA region. This new ASTI project will work in close collaboration with the Association of Agricultural Research Institutions in the Near East and North Africa (AARINENA) and main national agricultural R&D agencies to:

1. Survey R&D institutions in the region, analyzing:

-R&D investment and capacity levels;

-The changing institutional structure of R&D; and

-How science and technology policies influence R&D incentives and performance.

2. Give particular attention to how R&D is being used to address critical resource constraints, especially water supply and irrigation efficiency.

The project will focus on Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Turkey. These countries comprise a representative sample of the different economic, social, political, and agro-climatic conditions in the region.