ECONOMIC RETURNS TO RESEARCH IN HESSIAN FLY (DIPTERA, CECIDOMYIIDAE) RESISTANT BREAD-WHEAT VARIETIES IN MOROCCO

Approximately $1.5 million has been invested by the United States and Morocco since 1980 in Morocco to develop bread-wheat varieties resista nt to the Hessian fly, Mayetiola destructor (Say). Although this effor t has proven to be successful in the development of resistant varietie s, research programs of this the rarely are evaluated for economic ret urns. As part of a comprehensive impact assessment of the USAID-funded Dryland Applied Agricultural Research Project of Morocco's National I nstitute of Agronomic Research and the mid-America International Agric ultural Consortium, this study assessed the benefits and costs of deve loping resistant varieties. Benefits, in terms of new germplasm, were realized by both Morocco and the United States. Overall benefits and c osts were calculated using a reasonable, least favorable case. The int ernal rate of return was 39%. Compared with other rates of return on a gricultural research efforts across countries, commodities, and time p eriods, 39% represents a high payoff.