Food security will continue to be one of the key global challenges in the coming decades. By the year 2050, the world will need sufficient food to feed 9.7 billion people—up from 7.4 billion in 2015 (UN 2015). Most of this population growth will be concentrated in developing countries, adding severe pressure to their development needs. According to some estimates, agricultural production will need to increase by 50 to 70 percent in order to meet future food demand, and all this will need to happen in a context of accelerating climate change, the effects of which are already being felt in the poorest and most vulnerable countries. Compared with many other regions around the world, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is well placed to scale up its agricultural production and trade. The region’s sources of comparative advantage lie, in part, in its abundant water and land resources. LAC’s share of global agricultural trade rose from just 8 percent in the mid-1990s to 13 percent in 2015 (OECD and FAO 2015). Brazil, the region’s economic engine, is now the world’s second-largest supplier of food and agricultural products based on continued productivity improvements in support of fast-growing exports. Agricultural research has been one of the key factors in increasing agricultural productivity in the region over the past decades, especially in countries like Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay (Nin Pratt et al. 2015). In order to measure, monitor, and benchmark the inputs, outputs, and performance of agricultural research
and development (R&D) systems throughout LAC over time, quantitative data are essential. They are an indispensable tool when it comes to assessing the contribution of agricultural R&D to agricultural productivity growth, and economic growth more generally. Such data are also crucial for research managers and policymakers in formulating agricultural research policy and making decisions about strategic planning, priority-setting, monitoring, and evaluation.