# Innovations in Sustainable Agriculture: Case Study of Lis Valley Irrigation District, Portugal
## 4 Results and Discussion  
### Investment in Innovation  
Despite the importance of innovation, the expenditure on Research and Development has declined, with the exception of medical sciences and humanities. The area of engineering and technology represents the largest area of investment, and agrarian sciences accounted for about 3% of the investment. Despite its importance in Portugal, investment fell during the analyzed period (Table 2). In Table 2 we can observe the Growth Rate (GR) and the Annual Growth Rate (average for three years, 2008-2010 and 2014-2016). Those values show a decrease in expenditure on R&D, as referred to previously.  
During the period of 2009-2017, the Gross Value Added (GVA) of both agriculture and the Food and Beverage sector (F&B) remained constant at around 1% and 2% of the GVA of the total economy, respectively. The importance of the F&B sector is related to the weight on exports and on trade balance improvement. Between 2015-2017, exports from the agri-food industries, including Agriculture and F&B products, represented circa 11% of total Portuguese goods exports with an Annual Growth Rate  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**2008**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**2009**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**2010**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**2011**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**2012**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**2013**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**2014**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**2015**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**2016 *} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**2008-2016**} \\ \cline{2-19}  & **Mf** & **\%** & **Mf** & **\%** & **Mf** & **\%** & **Mf** & **\%** & **Mf** & **\%** & **Mf** & **\%** & **Mf** & **\%** & **Mf** & **\%** & **Mf** & **\%** & **AGR (\%)** & **AGR (\%)** \\ \hline Total & 2585 & 100 & 2772 & 100 & 2758 & 100 & 2566 & 100 & 2320 & 100 & 2258 & 100 & 2232 & 100 & 2234 & 100 & 2388 & 100 & -7.6 & -1.0 & -2.8 \\ \hline Natural sciences and engineering & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & \\ \hline Natural sciences & 773 & 30 & 674 & 24 & 719 & 26 & 565 & 27 & 534 & 100 & 541 & 24 & 562 & 25\% & 541 & 24 & 198 & 8 & -74.4 & -15.7 & -8.1 \\ \hline Engineering and technology & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & \\ \hline Medical and health sciences & 278 & 11 & 290 & 10 & 311 & 11 & 327 & 29 & 301 & 100 & 277 & 12 & 284 & 13\% & 288 & 13 & 290 & 12 & 4.0 & 0.5 & -0.4 \\ \hline Agricultural and veterinary sciences & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & \\ \hline Social sciences, humanities, and arts & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & \\ \hline Social sciences & 310 & 12 & 343 & 12 & 357 & 13 & 310 & 68 & 255 & 100 & 263 & 12 & 255 & 11\% & 276 & 12 & 285 & 12 & -8.1 & -1.0 & -3.5 \\ \hline Humanities and arts & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & \\ \hline Social sciences & 310 & 12 & 343 & 12 & 357 & 13 & 310 & 68 & 255 & 100 & 263 & 12 & 255 & 11\% & 276 & 12 & 285 & 12 & -8.1 & -1.0 & -3.5 \\ \hline Humanities and arts & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Source: Adapted from: OECD [25]. * Estasticas de Investigacão e Desenvolvimento [26], 14 May 2018.  
\end{table}
Table 2: Gross domestic expenditure on Research and Development (R&D) by the field in Mf, and in percentages (%) of the total expenditure of the Portuguese economy.  
(AGR) of 6% per year for the periods of 2009-2011 and 2015-2017. For these periods, the AGR of imports was around 2% per year, lower than the growth rate of exports.  
Exports of agricultural products increased in importance when compared with the exports of Agri-Food Industries. Agricultural exports in 2017 represented 58% of Agri-Food exports, and the Annual Growth Rate (AGR) of the agricultural sector was about 8% per year (tri-annual average), higher than both the AGR of the F&B sector (3%) and of the total economy (6%). The export of agricultural products has increasingly acquired relevant importance, and this fact is relevant for the agricultural area, which is the core of this project.