ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the task that remains of designing and implementing the global agricultural research system that will need to be in place by the first decade of the twenty-first century. It provides the special problems of the smaller countries in the emerging global system. One of the most remarkable institutional innovations of the last two decades was the establishment of a new system of international agricultural research institutes. An important innovation in the management of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research system is that each institute is governed by an independent board of directors and operates as an autonomous institution. The initial years of the new international institutes were characterized by a tendency to keep relationships at arm's length between the institutes and the developed countries' universities and research institutions. The international system is particularly important for enhancing and sustaining the productivity of the smaller national agricultural research systems.
