77
hand picking of hybrid corn. The transition from varietal breeding to double-cross
and eventually single-cross hybrids, combined with improvement in land management techniques, crop protection products, and fertilizer programs, resulted in a
threefold increase in maize yields between the 1920s and 1980s (Crow 1998).
Today, public-private partnerships remain an essential foundation of innovation
and scientific advances, but the balance of resources devoted to research and development is rapidly changing. While it is undeniable that the private sector benefits
greatly from investments made by the public sector in fundamental research and the
education of scientists, companies have committed enormous amounts of resources
to early stage discoveries to better serve farmers and seek an edge over their competitors. Against a backdrop of proportionally more limited resources for the public
sector and innovations which require sophisticated (and expensive) infrastructure,
the private sector has invested massively in technology developments, with global
private spending on agricultural R&D rising from $5.1billion in 1990 to $15.6 billion by 2014 (Fuglie 2016), whereas the public sector increased at a slower rate. In
1980, the ratio of private vs. public investments was pegged at 0.54; by 2011, it had
increased to 0.81, coming close to parity (Pardey et al. 2015). But it is not only the
absolute amounts invested which have evolved over time, it is also the types of
investments, which are undergoing a dramatic transition, particularly in large-scale
agriculture.
Large companies in the agricultural sector compete with each other to deliver
ever better products and services to their customers, who are increasingly discerning and sophisticated in choosing which products allow for sustainable returns.
With farmer productivity being the key driver of an industry, which has innovated at
a remarkable clip for close to a century, investments in research and development by
the private sector have become a condition of existence. With the collaboration of
James Watson and Francis Crick, which in 1953 led to the description of the structure of the double helix of deoxyribonucleic acid (“DNA”) (Watson and Crick
1953), plant agricultural research advanced to be conducted at the molecular level.
The second half of the twentieth century produced new and powerful scientific technologies, specifically based on recombinant DNA techniques, genetic engineering,
rapid gene sequencing, and synthetic biology.
At first, large-scale collaborations focused on elucidating the genetic material of
several plant species. The Multinational Coordinated Arabidopsis Genome Project
was first, including stock centers in the United States and in Europe orchestrated in
the United States by the National Science Foundation. After 10 years, the global
collaboration involving scientists from the United States, Europe, and Japan resulted
in a near complete Arabidopsis (commonly called thale cress) genome, published in
the year 2000 (The Arabidopsis Genome Initiative 2000). Collaborations between
academics and scientists from government and private industry were frequent and
productive. Databases were built and shared, including by the private industry, like
the single nucleotide polymorphisms and small insertions and deletions database
constructed from the Columbia and Landsberg erecta ecotypes and made available
by Cereon Genomics as a service to the community (Ausubel 2000). This spawned
3 Open Innovation and Value Creation in Crop Genetics
hand picking of hybrid corn. The transition from varietal breeding to double-cross
and eventually single-cross hybrids, combined with improvement in land management techniques, crop protection products, and fertilizer programs, resulted in a
threefold increase in maize yields between the 1920s and 1980s (Crow 1998).
Today, public-private partnerships remain an essential foundation of innovation
and scientific advances, but the balance of resources devoted to research and development is rapidly changing. While it is undeniable that the private sector benefits
greatly from investments made by the public sector in fundamental research and the
education of scientists, companies have committed enormous amounts of resources
to early stage discoveries to better serve farmers and seek an edge over their competitors. Against a backdrop of proportionally more limited resources for the public
sector and innovations which require sophisticated (and expensive) infrastructure,
the private sector has invested massively in technology developments, with global
private spending on agricultural R&D rising from $5.1billion in 1990 to $15.6 billion by 2014 (Fuglie 2016), whereas the public sector increased at a slower rate. In
1980, the ratio of private vs. public investments was pegged at 0.54; by 2011, it had
increased to 0.81, coming close to parity (Pardey et al. 2015). But it is not only the
absolute amounts invested which have evolved over time, it is also the types of
investments, which are undergoing a dramatic transition, particularly in large-scale
agriculture.
Large companies in the agricultural sector compete with each other to deliver
ever better products and services to their customers, who are increasingly discerning and sophisticated in choosing which products allow for sustainable returns.
With farmer productivity being the key driver of an industry, which has innovated at
a remarkable clip for close to a century, investments in research and development by
the private sector have become a condition of existence. With the collaboration of
James Watson and Francis Crick, which in 1953 led to the description of the structure of the double helix of deoxyribonucleic acid (“DNA”) (Watson and Crick
1953), plant agricultural research advanced to be conducted at the molecular level.
The second half of the twentieth century produced new and powerful scientific technologies, specifically based on recombinant DNA techniques, genetic engineering,
rapid gene sequencing, and synthetic biology.
At first, large-scale collaborations focused on elucidating the genetic material of
several plant species. The Multinational Coordinated Arabidopsis Genome Project
was first, including stock centers in the United States and in Europe orchestrated in
the United States by the National Science Foundation. After 10 years, the global
collaboration involving scientists from the United States, Europe, and Japan resulted
in a near complete Arabidopsis (commonly called thale cress) genome, published in
the year 2000 (The Arabidopsis Genome Initiative 2000). Collaborations between
academics and scientists from government and private industry were frequent and
productive. Databases were built and shared, including by the private industry, like
the single nucleotide polymorphisms and small insertions and deletions database
constructed from the Columbia and Landsberg erecta ecotypes and made available
by Cereon Genomics as a service to the community (Ausubel 2000). This spawned
3 Open Innovation and Value Creation in Crop Genetics