"In addition to assessing existing conditions and knowledge, the IAASTD uses a simple set of model projections to look at the future, based on knowledge from past events and existing trends such as population growth, rural/urban food and poverty dynamics, loss of agricultural land, water availability, and climate change effects. This set of volumes comprises the findings of the IAASTD. It consists of a Global Report, a brief Synthesis Report, and 5 subglobal reports. Taken as a whole, the IAASTD reports are an indispensable reference for anyone working in the field of agriculture and rural development, whether at the level of basic research, policy, or practice."--BOOK JACKET.

The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science, and Technology for Development (IAASTD) was a multidisciplinary, multi-stakeholder assessment by about 400 experts. It had four primary goals: (a) to assess the effects of agricultural knowledge, science, and technology policies, institutions, and practices in the context of sustainable development; (b) to identify information gaps; (c) to make the resulting analyses accessible to decision makers; and (d) to further the capacity of developing countries to generate agricultural knowledge, science, and technology for sustainable development. It produced a Global Assessment, five Sub-Global Assessments, a Global Summary for Decision Makers, and a Synthesis Report. The World Bank was a convener, sponsor, financial contributor, trustee, host of the Secretariat, and supervisor of a Global Environment Facility project that contributed funds. The present review rates the overall outcome as moderately unsatisfactory. The IAASTD was a useful experience at the nexus of politics and science. However, agricultural technology--with its complexity, diversity, and politics--proved to be a bridge too far. For the substantial resources used, it did not offer sufficient new knowledge or conceptual frameworks for decision makers; it gave conflicting messages, and, for a 50-year timeframe, underestimated the potential of new technologies. Although the literature and case experience presented in the IAASTD reports point toward a pluralistic strategy for agricultural research and technology development, along with rigorous evaluation to sift success from failure, the overall message that emerged from the IAASTD was more a restrictive, exclusionary one with an undercurrent against new technology, genetically modified organisms, and input-intensive agriculture. Attributable impact from the reports has so far been modest at best at the international level and negligible at the national level and below. This may improve with time, but time may also be running out. This review offers a number of lessons for the design of future assessments in the area of public science and for the World Bank as convener of such assessments.