Addressing the Needs for Sustained and

Rapid Agricultural Growth in Pakistan:

Some Jock R Anderson Thoughts on:

“Making the Agricultural

Research and Knowledge

System More Responsive”

Some History• 60s and 70s Pak-USA reviews and ARC evolved

• 80s and 90s World Bank joins US in helping semi-

autonomous PARC and its institutes get going,

including with:

• Increasing engagement with CGIAR, including

CIMMYT… ADB also engages

• FAO-WB-GOP Review Team, 2002 (Byerlee et al.)

• Our Independent Third-Party Eval ( ITPE) 2012-13

• Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) launched 2013

• Dr Iftikhar Ahmad revived the National Coordinated

Research Programmes (NCRPs) …

• a Five Year Business Plan (2013-18) for

strengthening key institutional aspects of PARC

Research is a Risky Business

• .. and AR4D in Pakistan is no exception,

• especially in the post 18th Amendment era,

• with remarkably unequal institutional

development among the Provinces;

• but riskiness per se is not critical for valuing

public investment in producing public goods.

• Expected returns are

the key indicator

of worth,

• and these are HIGH!

Picture: CIMMYT

Background:

The Role of Agricultural Research

• Globally:

• Recognition of the need to increase investment in agriculture, especially in agricultural R&D. But only Brazil and China are responding appropriately!

• In Pakistan:

• Successes in the past, scarcer more recently

• Stagnating growth in yields for most crops

• Substantial yield gaps identified by PARC (next slide)

• A clear need to strengthen agricultural R&D to bring Pakistan up to competitive levels of performance

• Internal review of PARC in 2011 highlighted need and opportunities for change

• Change in political and institutional frame conditions

• 18th Institutional Amendment – requires novel adjustments

Substantial yield gaps persist

ton

s/h

ect

are

20

18

16

14

12

10

Potential Achievable (progressive farmers' yields) National average

Source: PARC, 2011 Note: Yields for cow’s milk are measured as litres/day.

International Complementarities

• Spillins critical: Julian Alston relived!

• But National capacity vital

• Private-sector roles imperative and facilitated by well

crafted Intellectual Property Rights

• Taken together riskiness can be much reduced and

expected returns elevated

• And partnerships such as AIP work to deliver such

complementarities

Picture: CIMMYT Picture: Bloomberg News

Towards an Innovative

Agricultural Innovation Program in Pakistan

Opportunities and challenges

for AIP

Some first reflections, informed

by the recent Independent

Third-Party Review of PARC

(ITPE)

Picture: Pakistan Today Picture: KHOKHAR/EXPRESS

Outcomes Yields

Sustainable resource

managementFarm income

Other factors

Performance of research system(Outputs)* Priorities* Quality * Efficiency* Sustainability

Capacity of research system to finance and supply research services (Human and financial resources, management)

Challenges of public sector management facing research organizations

Ability of farmers and stakeholders to demand and supervise research services (e.g. ,Board membership)

Challenges of small and female farmers to exercise voice (dualistic farm structure)

Demand-sidechallenges

Supply-sidechallenges

ImpactFood security Sustainable

pro-poor agricultural

development

Conceptual framework

Challenges for agricultural research in

Pakistan: Supply-side

• Challenges in human resource capacity

• According to ITPE: Staff trained at PhD level in world-class

universities in the 1980s reaching retirement age; declining

number of internationally trained PhD holders

• Opportunity for PARC system: Human resource development

• But… need to link HRD to strategic goals and focus on merit

among the selection criteria

• Challenges in research management

• ITPE indicated some limitations in strategic research planning

and impact orientation

• Opportunity for AIP:

• Build capacity for state-of-the-art tools for research planning

• Strengthen impact orientation in all funding windows

Challenges on the demand-side

• Underlying problem: Dualistic farm structure

• Large farms – politically well connected

• Smallholders, female farmers – limited voice

• How to strengthen the possibilities of smallholder farmers to demand

research services and hold research organizations accountable?

• ITPE indicated:

• Need to strengthen the demand-side in order to address long-

standing governance problems

• Many good recommendations in the past not addressed….

• Opportunity for PARC and AIP

• AR4D Principle: Equitable partnership and accountability among

all stakeholders

• Finding innovative ways to include new partners

Outlook

• Gestation of AIP was

challenging, but great that it is happening

• 4 years is a very short time to make the intended

progress, so there is not a moment to lose

• The PARC efforts to boost relevance and efficiency

seem positive, and the Chairman has a mere 2 years,

but good that the President gave him the opportunity

• So, all the Best of Luck with the Business Plan and

with its responsive implementation!

• Thank you