Research and technology development in Southeast Asian economies are drifting away from agriculture and farmers' needs

Purpose This paper aims to raise awareness on current shifting of R&D activities from agricultural-based Agriculture and agriculture-related Natural Sciences (ANS) to industrial-based Engineering, Computer, and Industry-related Sciences (ECI) in Southeast Asian (SEA) economies. This trend might cause stiffer challenges on effort to sustain food security in the region. Design/methodology/approach Five SEA countries were selected, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. R&D data were collected over the years 2001-2014. Collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics and correlation. Findings Malaysia has been in the process of shifting from ANS to ECI cluster, whereas Vietnam and Indonesia followed the trend but about a decade behind; meanwhile, the Philippines and Thailand kept their focus on ANS clusters. Within the ANS cluster, Malaysia and Thailand leaned towards Modern Biosciences and Modelling (MBM) sub-clusters. The Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia were more focused on Agriculture and Conventional Biosciences (ACB) sub-cluster. ACB is more relevant and affordable to smallholder farmers. Shifting of R&D priority correlated with GDP per capita of SEA countries. Within ANS cluster, R&D activity in MBM increased but ACB decreased as GDP per capita increased. Research limitations/implications - Data used in this study were limited to accessible 2001-2014 data in five selected SEA economies. Therefore, there is an open possibility for future research on extended timeline using more sophisticated data analysis. Practical implications - Agricultural technology development should be relevant to needs of and affordable to smallholder farmers, as they are the primary food producers in developing economies. Social implications - If the R&D activities continue to drift away from farmer's needs, there will be a possible drawback of widening gap between developed agricultural technologies and absorptive capacity of smallholder farmers. Government institutions should revisit their R&D priority as the current trend could cause a serious obstacle in maintaining food security in the SEA region. Originality/value - This frontier study provides an early warning for government in SEA economies and other developing countries for balancing between R&D for supporting smallholder farmers in food production and for enhancing national economic growth.