Colombia - Lessons from the Competitive Allocation of Research Funding in the Agricultural Sector

Cristancho, Edwin ; Ekanayake, Indira Janaki ; Janssen, Willem

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION;    AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH;    AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY;    AGRICULTURE;    CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE;   

RP-ID  :  53808

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Since 2004, Colombia's ministry ofagriculture and rural development has implemented a strategyof competitive funding or public call for proposals for theallocation of public funds for Research, TechnologicalDevelopment and Innovation (RTDI) programs and projectstargeting the agricultural sector. This strategy considersscience and technology as core elements of agriculturalsector policy, and the allocation of funds is governed byprinciples of cost-effectiveness and transparency. The factthat Latin American (LAC) countries, especially Colombia,are commonly endowed with a high concentrations ofbiodiversity (habitats and species) compared to otherregions of the world, generates significant opportunitiesfor RTDI. These projects offer a systematic way of makinguse of biodiversity in life sciences aimed at solvingproblems (e.g. a new disease-resistant variety of atraditional crop) or generating commercial returns (e.g. anative fruit that can be domesticated, harvested andindustrialized). Moreover, proposals were typicallysubmitted by research entities (universities and researchcenters) that were often disconnected from the needs of theproductive sector and which often generated results scarcelyrelevant to producers.