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Authors:

Nienke Beintema, Mekonnen Hailu, Tesfaye Haregewoin, Michael Rahija, and Eyob Bezabeh

Year:

2014

Publisher

International Food Policy Research Institute and Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research.

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National agricultural research spending increased by a modest 8 percent during 2008–2011. The majority of funding was derived from government sources, with foreign donors contributing around 20 percent in 2011. At just 0.19 percent in 2011, Ethiopia’s agricultural research intensity ratio (investment in agricultural R&D as a share of AgGDP) is one of the lowest in Africa.
 
Continuing the growing trend in Ethiopia toward the decentralization of research, in 2011 the RARIs accounted for half the country’s agricultural researchers (in FTEs) compared with about one-third in 2000. Combined, the RARIs accounted for 42 percent of total agricultural R&D spending in 2011.
 
Ethiopia has one of the fastest-growing, but youngest and least-qualified pools of agricultural researchers in Africa. As of 2011, more than half the country’s agricultural researchers (in FTEs) held only BSc degrees, and 48 percent were under 31 years old.