Private sector R&D in food and agriculture rose sharply as public sector funding declined

U.S. private sector spending on food and agricultural research and development (R&D) has risen rapidly over 2003-2013, surpassing public sector funding. This is a relatively new phenomenon; historically, the public sector has led funding. From 1971 to the early 2000s, total public and total private R&D on food and agriculture followed each other closely. Throughout, the private sector funded R&D for agricultural inputs (such as tractors and pesticides) and food manufacturing in roughly equal measure, while the public sector focused primarily on agricultural inputs. In 2003, however, the two series began to diverge. Total private R&D—in both the food and agricultural input sectors—increased from a total of $6.0 billion (adjusted for inflation) in 2003 to $11.8 billion in 2013. Meanwhile, total public R&D fell from $6.0 billion to around $4.5 billion. By 2010, private agricultural input R&D alone had surpassed total public R&D. Multiple factors have contributed to this change, including the extension of intellectual property rights to different crop varieties, greater potential profits from new scientific opportunities, and increased demand for new agricultural products in developing markets. This chart appears in the November 2016 Amber Waves feature, “U.S. Agricultural R&D in an Era of Falling Public Funding.”