NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
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This project was made possible with funding support from the U.S. Agency for International Development, Grant No. DPE-5545-A-00-8068-00.
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PANEL ON BNF RESEARCH GRANTS
Ralph W.F. Hardy,
Boyce-Thompson Institute, Ithaca, New York,
Chairman
Robert H. Burris,
Department of Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin
Frans J. deBruijn,
MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
Johanna Döbereiner,
Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Allan R.J. Eaglesham,
Boyce-Thompson Institute, Ithaca, New York
Walter Andrew Hill,
College of Agriculture and Home Economics, Tuskegee Institute, Alabama
Ann Mary Hirsch,
Department of Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, California
William B. Lacy,
College of Agricultural Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania
Stewart R. Smith,
Agricultural Research and Development, LiphaTech, Inc., Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Mercedes Umali-Garcia,
College of Forestry, University of the Philippines at Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines
Delane E. Welsch,
Department of Agriculture and Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota
Johnny C. Wynne,
Experiment Station, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina
Consultant
Lloyd Frederick,
Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University (ret.), and
AID Consultant,
Cambridge, Iowa
Staff
Maurice Fried, Study Director
Connie Reges, Administrative Secretary
Michael McD. Dow, Acting Director,
BOSTID
Preface
In 1979, following the United Nations Conference on Science and Technology for Development (UNCSTD), the United States announced a program for science and technology cooperation as a major initiative. In 1981, congressional legislation authorized the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) to initiate a research grants program identified as the Program in Science and Technology Cooperation (PSTC).
PSTC was created to fund innovative scientific research on issues of importance to developing countries. PSTC had the following objectives: (1) to assist developing countries to strengthen scientific and technological capacity; (2) to address significant problems in developing nations on a regionwide basis; and (3) to fund innovative research of high scientific merit. Further, PSTC sought to foster collaboration between scientists and other technology experts in the United States as well as scientists in developing nations.
In 1985, again under congressional mandate, AID established a parallel grants program, called the U.S.-Israel Cooperative Development Research Program (CDR), to encourage collaborative research between Israeli scientists and scientists of developing nations. Its objectives were similar to those of PSTC, providing funding for research in both Israel and a developing country, with the stipulation that the research should be a cooperative endeavor.
In 1982, with support of a grant received under PSTC, the Board on Science and Technology for International Development, the unit of the
National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences responsible for cooperation with developing countries, established a research grants program under the auspices of a Committee on Research Grants (CRG).
All three of these programs included innovative research on biological nitrogen fixation (BNF). The grants were similar in size and involved developing-country scientists either alone, in partnership with a U.S. scientist, or in partnership with an Israeli scientist.
In 1992, the National Research Council appointed a Panel on BNF Research Grants to elucidate the contribution of the USAID-supported BNF research conducted under the PSTC, CDR, and CRG programs. The panel was requested to advise on the impact of these grants and to suggest potential opportunities and directions for future research utilizing information obtained from reports and site visits to selected grantees and their collective experience. The panel met twice, on September 29-30, 1992, and April 6-7, 1993.
The panel concluded that expanded use of biological nitrogen fixation is equally critical to future crop and tree production in both developed and developing countries. Accordingly, a major part of the report provided justification for expanding investments in BNF around the world. High priority research directions are identified for developed and developing countries. In many cases they are similar.
Site visits were made to projects in the Philippines, Thailand, and Kenya, and mail inquiries were made to other AID grantees, both past and present. Based on these visits and responses to inquiries, the panel assessed the major accomplishments from the AID-funded research.
The report concludes with recommendations for future BNF research in both developing and developed countries. Research in biological nitrogen fixation is unique in its unusual potential to have a favorable impact on food, feed, and tree production, on regional and global environments, on fossil fuel use, and on sustainability.
The panel wishes to thank Maurice Fried, who provided strong staff support for meetings, visits, inquiries, summaries, and drafting of the report. The chairman also thanks the panel for their dedicated contributions of wisdom on biological nitrogen fixation, and especially Allan R.J. Eaglesham for extensive editing of the report and drafting the executive summary.
Ralph W.F. Hardy, Chairman
Panel on Biological Nitrogen Fixation