AGRICULTURAL research is going to hit rock bottom very soon and plunge the entire Third World into a state of severe food crisis - if more money to fund it does not come in immediately. The international agricultural research network is facing an acute resource crunch, according to the Genetic Resource Action International (GRAIN), a global NGo active in agricultural biodiversity research.

GRAIN has 16 units functioning under it - all of which are striving to feed the teeming millions in the developing nations - and its budget is a meagre us $272 million. Owing to the lack of funds, major research programmes have been put on hold ald 30 per cent of the staff have been retrenched.

But the body which is more seriously cash-strapped is the Philippine-based Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), with which GRAIN interacts in the capacity of a consultant. CGIAR is so tied down by its financial constraints that it is finding it extremely difficult to cope with thepressure of competition from organisations involved in commercial agriculture and biotechnology research and development.

Over 20 international agricultural research groups and NGOs have jointly urged the CGIAR to remould itself and work towards a research and benefit- sharing agenda.