Australians (and New Zealanders) are among the few citizens of the rich world that can hold their heads high in global trade discussions - unlike other rich countries, they have farm policies that do not distort global prices. For OECD countries as a whole, farm subsidies and protection cost developing countries an average of five times what OECD countries provide in official development assistance.
Moreover, in the absence of farm subsidies, Australia, both through the public sector and farmers themselves, has one of the highest intensities of investment in agricultural R&D in the world, with a strong human and institutional base that provides a rich resource for supporting science in the developing world.
The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research is an innovative example of support to agricultural science for development. Finally, Australian scientists have long experience in dealing with the challenges of both dryland and tropical agriculture - knowledge that is directly relevant to conditions in many developing countries.
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But to provide leadership, Australia must invest more than the 5 per cent of its official development assistance that currently goes to agriculture, and continue to scale up and sustain its support for and partnerships with national and international agricultural research centers around the world. With world leaders once again paying attention to agriculture, the time to act is now.
Co-written by Derek Byerlee, Co-Director; Kym Anderson, Philip Pardey, Julian Alston, Jock Anderson, and Will Martin (Team members), World Bank’s World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development. All authors of this opinion piece are Australian.
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About the Author
Derek Byerlee, originally from a South Australian sheep/wheat farm, is the Co-Director of the World Bank’s flagship report, The World Development Report. He has dedicated his career to agriculture in developing countries, as a teacher, researcher, administrator and policy advisor.