In 1961, an international group of rice scientists came at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines and began crossing semi-dwarf varieties of japonica rice with taller indica varieties from South and Southeast Asia. Within weeks of the initiation of the rice breeding programme, they had made the crosses that led to the development of the varieties IR5 and IR8, the latter of which was released in 1965 and subsequently planted on as many as 10 million ha by the 1980s. The economic impact of high-yielding rice varieties – and more broadly of the Green Revolution – was vast. Recent research points to tens of trillions of dollars in economic benefits from the Green Revolution, along with positive impacts on health outcomes, including infant mortality. But the Green Revolution also been criticised for negative environmental and social impacts. What can we learn from this episode about the planning of research and the prioritisation of investments in research? How should we think about establishing research priorities in complex systems that are not fully understood? How should we design monitoring and feedback systems that can identify potential harms from agricultural innovation? This lecture will offer reflections on the complexity of research investments strategies in the context of publicly funded agricultural research targeted towards low-income economies.

Prof Douglas Gollin, Professor of Development Economics, Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford

This event is part of a series of talks organised by the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food 

Please email: futureoffood@oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk with any queries

Investing in Agricultural Research: Lessons from the Green Revolution and the Pandemic with Prof Douglas Gollin