Science Forum 2007: Harnessing Scientific Advances for Sustainable Agriculture

The ability of the CGIAR to successfully confront the formidable combination of challenges outlined in various presentations at AGM07 will depend in large part on its ability to mobilize advanced science in collaboration with numerous partners. The CGIAR has already compiled a strong record of incorporating new tools and techniques into its problem-solving research, and this has enhanced the efficiency, effectiveness and impact of its work. But new possibilities are continuously emerging from various areas of advanced science, so now more than ever, the CGIAR must be well placed to take up new approaches and employ them strategically for pro-poor development.

The AGM07 Science Forum was organized with that imperative in mind through a joint effort by the CGIAR Secretatriat and Science Council, with valuable input from a broad-based advisory committee. Early on, the organizers defined three key objectives for the forum:

1. Reflect on major scientific achievements in fostering sustainable agriculture
2. Examine advances in science that hold significant promise for enhancing the effectiveness of agricultural research.
3. Explore means by which CGIAR researchers can further incorporate advanced science into their research, while offering new opportunities for colleagues in the wider scientific community to contribute to sustainable agriculture.

With the help of many colleagues in the CGIAR Centers and other research organizations, the organizers put together a comprehensive program around these objectives. The overall aim was to generate – through presentations, commentary and discussions, involving a cross-section of CGIAR researchers, Members and other stakeholders – a wealth of insights and concrete suggestions that could be considered by the AGM07 Business Meeting and then by the Science Council and others for subsequent follow-up.

Even before AGM07 took place, CGIAR researchers and others were able to share their views through an online survey, in which nearly a hundred people took part, and afterwards through an online discussion of survey results.

Opening Plenary Session

This session set the stage – a wide global stage – for the day’s group discussions. It began with a presentation on alarming recent developments in the world food situation, delivered by Joachim von Braun, Director General of the CGIAR-supported International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Then, World Bank advisor Derek Byerlee presented an overview of the World Bank’s recently launched World Development Report: Agriculture for Development, with emphasis on highlights and implications for the CGIAR. Based on a synthesis of the best research results available, the report argues that agriculture urgently be given a more prominent place in the development agenda. It also signals both challenges in agriculture as well as opportunities for reducing poverty through sustainable agricultural growth in agriculture’s “three worlds,” which the report characterizes as agriculture-based, transforming and urbanized.

CAAS President Zhai Huqu next described the 10 most important recent advances in China’s agricultural research and outlined new strategies for this research, together with priorities for international cooperation. Among the advances he cited were hybrid and super rice, transgenic Bt cotton, high-yielding and high-quality canola, improved cultivars of vegetables, effective measures for controlling and preventing major animal diseases, advances in the management of natural resources and in ecological restoration and innovative uses of agricultural information technology.

The session concluded with a presentation on “New Science for Agriculture: Challenges and Opportunities” by CGIAR Science Council member Hans Herren. Commenting on the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), an international evaluation involving some 900 experts, Herren noted that agricultural knowledge, science and technology had registered many positive effects during recent decades. But he argued that there is still a series of “disconnects” – for example, between development and the environment as well as indigenous people and other marginalized groups – which must be addressed in agendas of research for development.

Theme 1: Science at Work for Sustainable Agriculture

Participants in four group discussions organized on a regional basis around this theme considered what have been the major scientific achievements in and beyond the CGIAR during recent years and what have been the key lessons learned as well as the implications of these lessons.

The full presentations and summaries of the commentary and discussions that addressed this and the two other themes will be made available in the coming weeks on the CGIAR Web site (www.cgiar.org).

Suffice it to say here that across different regions a number of common concerns emerged. One is the need for more integrated or holistic approaches to multidisciplinary, collaborative research for development. Another is the importance of making the larger context for agricultural development more favorable through appropriate policy development. And a third is the importance of rebuilding human capital (much eroded through sheer neglect in recent years), which is essential for harnessing knowledge from emerging fields, such as biotechnology, bioenergy, supply chain management and information and communications technology (ICTs). All of these concerns figured prominently in discussions on Asia and the Pacitifc.

There were also fairly obvious regional differences in the output of the four groups. Participants in the session on Central and West Asia and North Africa, for example, emphasized the severe natural resource constraints of their region, while colleagues from Latin America and the Caribbean stressed more the importance of addressing the needs of people and regions left behind by the region’s development. The sub-Saharan Africa group called for renewed efforts to build on recent breakthroughs in agriculture through massive scaling out of successful technological innovations.

Theme 2: Advanced Science to Enhance Research Effectiveness

Participants in the four sessions addressing this theme on the basis of broad areas of advanced science asked what developments in various fields are needed to better address challenges to achieving sustainable agriculture.

As one might expect, these groups generated a long list of possibilities, making it clear that prioritization will be a key to stronger mobilization of advanced science in the CGIAR. Here we can provide only a sampling of the potentially powerful tools, techniques and approaches that are quickly evolving.

The discussion of molecular biology, for example, centered mainly on two possibilities. One involves the creation of a public genetic research platform that consists of three main elements required for crop improvement: (1) genetic stocks of international value, such as mapping populations, (2) effective biological evaluation or phenotyping and (3) comparative biology between species. A second option entails the use of DNA barcoding for quick, efficient and accurate identification of pest species, which is essential for their effective control.

The agroecology group identified various opportunities, including payment for ecosystem services, new approaches such as complex systems thinking, novel uses of below- ground biodiversity, integrated extension methods and development applications for ICTs. In exploiting these opportunities, participants emphasized that the CGIAR must act in ways that are systematic, transversal (cutting across scales and disciplines) and participatory.

Participants in the session on social sciences underlined the importance of better understanding the context of technology development to enhance impact. This can be accomplished through analysis of gender and power relations, governance structures, patterns of decentralization, institutional innovations and other features of the rural sector. In other words, CGIAR scientists need ways to better understand the communities in which they and their partners work. This group also insisted on the need to devise new approaches for understanding intersectoral relationships, for example, between agriculture and health, education, and social mobilization.

Theme 3: Strategies for Harnessing Advanced Science

Finally, participants in five sessions organized around topics related to this theme identified important components of strategies for better mobilizing science.

Inputs from one session under theme 2 and several sessions under theme 3 are still being synthesized, so all we can provide here is a sampling of the comments.

Group discussion on research management, for example, indicated the need for a new “equation” in agricultural research that will permit a significant reduction in the transaction costs of partnerships for mobilizing advanced science. The group also took up a key concern from theme 3 discussions, namely the need to strengthen human resources, particularly in the face of new and more complex challenges.

In the discussion on resource mobilization, participants highlighted the importance of further encouraging the more advanced developing countries that benefit from CGIAR research to invest more in international research.

The session on partnerships concluded that to find long-term solutions for complex problems in a rapidly changing context requires more innovative research approaches. This, in turn, means that the CGIAR must leave behind traditional partnership models and embrace more inclusive partnerships, involving a broader spectrum of actors and stakeholders.