Poverty reduction is an overarching goal of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Between its establishment in 1971 and 2015, it mobilised $21 billion in funding primarily to raise global agricultural productivity, particularly by smallholder farmers in developing countries. However, despite numerous calls for such estimates, the researchers are not aware of any direct assessments of the overall impacts of CGIAR research on global poverty.

This study builds on earlier attempts to measure the impact of the CGIAR on poverty, first by reviewing existing literature on the impact of CGIAR R&D on agricultural productivity, examining the relationships between research investments and productivity in that literature, and then by using a global Computable General Equilibrium model linked to household surveys covering almost 300,000 households to assess the impacts of these productivity gains on poverty at a global level. The study estimates that CGIAR investments during the 1971-2015 period lifted around 70 million people out of poverty.

Will Martin is a Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). He is the immediate Past President of the International Association of Agricultural Economists.