Jean Balié, Regional Director, South East Asia and Pacific, CGIAR, explains the benefits from collaboration in our regions. The Crawford Fund has commissioned two new reports as part of our ongoing “Doing Well by Doing Good” campaign on Australia’s investment in agricultural research for development (Ag4Dev) which show it continues to be an outstanding success.

It is well-targeted, contributes to the food and nutrition security of low-income countries, their environmental and economic sustainability and resilience, and to gender equity and regional stability.

The same investment also brings significant returns to Australia’s farmers, biosecurity, scientific knowledge and our global diplomatic reputation. With the proportion of Australia’s development-assistance budget given to agricultural research and development at only around 2.5%, we firmly believe it is in Australia’s interests to increase this.