Authors:
Stads, Gert-Jan; Beintema, Nienke M.
Year:
2003
Publisher
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI); International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR); and National Agricultural Research Center (CNRA)
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Political unrest, falling world-market commodity prices, and,
most recently, the outbreak of the civil war in September 2002 have compounded the climate of financial uncertainty within the agricultural research system in Côte d’Ivoire. CNRA as the major entity conducting research has been most severely affected. As of early 2002, funding to CNRA from producer organizations and the private sector was well below the levels agreed upon under PNASA II. Uncertainty about suspension of foreign aid, along with the deterioration of public finances,
severely constrained agricultural research expenditures in Côte d’Ivoire in recent years.
As long as the current crisis continues, the privatization criteria agreed in PNASA II will not be met, and CNRA will remain dependent on government funding and revenues from its own commodity sales. Hopefully this situation will be redressed once the country’s political situation improves.
Despite these negative trends, investment levels in agricultural R&D are comparable to or higher than those in other African countries.