Authors:
Sandra Perez, Luís de Los Santos, Nienke Beintema, and Kathleen Flaherty
Year:
2014
Publisher
International Food Policy Research Institute and Dominican Institute of Agricultural and Forestry Research.
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Agricultural research spending decreased by 24 percent in inflation-adjusted terms during 2006–2012. Moreover, at just 0.30 percent in 2012, the country’s agricultural research intensity ratio (agricultural R&D spending as a share of AgGDP) falls well below the 1-percent target recommended by the United Nations.
Agricultural R&D in the Dominican Republic is primarily funded by the government. Donors make a small but important contribution to the cost of research activities, although this support was nonexistent in 2010 and 2012.
The country’s total number of agricultural researchers increased by about half during 2006–2012. The number of researchers qualified to the PhD level remained quite low, however, and half of them were nearing retirement age as of 2012.