research partnerships and learning networks: the case of ...research partnerships and learning...

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Research Partnerships and Learning Networks:The Case of Agricultural Research for

Development

Fernando ChaparroNARS Secretariat of GFAR

Paper presented in the 9th General Conference ofthe European Association of Development Researchand Training Institutes (EADI); Paris, September22-25, 1999

G F A R

F M R A

F G I A

LOBAL ORUM ONGRICULTURAL ESEARCH

ORUM ONDIAL DELA ECHERCHE GRICOLE

ORO LOBAL DENVESTIGACION GROPECUARIA

Research Partnerships and Learning Networks: The Case of Agricultural Research for Development______________________________________________________________

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Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................................1

2. THE DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGE...................................................................................................2

3. INFORMATION, KNOWLEDGE AND DEVELOPMENT: NEW OPPORTUNITIES ANDCHALLENGES CREATED BY THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION ...................................................3

3.1 BIOTECHNOLOGY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROPRIETARY TECHNOLOGY.........................................4

3.2 ROLE OF ICT IN PROMOTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF KNOWLEDGE SOCIETIES.......................................5

3.3 THE CHALLENGE: HARNESSING THE NEW AREAS OF SCIENCE FOR DEVELOPMENT ..............................6

4. ICT APPLICATIONS AND THEIR ROLE IN AGRICULTURAL AND RURALDEVELOPMENT ........................................................................................................................................7

4.1 SECTORS OF APPLICATION OF ICT IN AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT ...............................8

4.1.1 Impact of ICT on Research and Extension...................................................................................8

4.1.2 Impact of ICT on Rural Development and Community Action.....................................................9

4.2 NATURE OF THE SERVICE OFFERED BY THE ICT APPLICATION ......................................................10

4.2.1 Agricultural Information Systems ............................................................................................11

4.2.2 Networking: Changing Patterns of Research Organization .................................................11

4.2.3 An Interesting Case of Networking: PanelaNet ....................................................................15

5. COPING WITH THE CHALLENGES: A NEW PARADIGM FOR AGRICULTURALRESEARCH FOR DEVELOPMENT....................................................................................................17

5.1 RE-THINKING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION, RESEARCH AND EXTENSION..................................................................................................................................17

5.2 RE-THINKING AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: INTEGRATION OF NARS ......18

5.3 MOBILIZING THE GLOBAL SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY OF ARD: THE GLOBAL FORUM ONAGRICULTURAL RESEARCH FOR DEVELOPMENT.................................................................................19

5.3.1 Development of a Global Shared Vision ....................................................................................20

5.3.2 Promotion of Innovative Research Partnerships .......................................................................21

5.3.3 Enable the Emergence of a Global Knowledge System in ARD.................................................22


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1. Introduction

The general topic of this 9th General Assembly of EADI is that of re-thinking therelationship between Europe and the developing world in this turn of century. Within this generaltheme, we have been asked in our session to look more specifically at scientific and technicalcooperation and at the new opportunities and challenges it faces in the new century. This paperwill analyze these issues in the context of scientific research and technical cooperation in theagricultural and rural development sector, given the very clear importance this sector has, notonly as a production sector, but also as a sector that has to do with the multifunctional use of therural space and of land, and with the sustainable management of natural resources and of thebiodiversity that characterizes our world.

This paper will develop three basic themes. In the first place, it will argue for the need weface of finding new and innovative approaches to address the increasing development challengewe confront (section 2). It is the challenge of eradicating poverty, achieving food security andassuring sustainable development, in a global context in which we are confronted with increasingpoverty and environmental degradation that will have an impact on the wellbeing of all societies.

The second thesis is that the scientific revolution that is taking place in the new areas ofscience is creating both new opportunities for successfully addressing these issues, as well ascritical challenges that may lead to growing inequalities, social conflict and unsustainabledevelopment patterns (section 3). On the side of opportunities we will look at three importantfactors: (a) the improved tools generated by science for addressing the issues of developmentthrough the very significant progress that is being made in biotechnology, information andcommunication technology (ICT) and in agroecology; (b) the changing structure of global scienceand the new organizational patterns that are emerging in the scientific community, as a means ofdevising new modes of cooperation; and (c) the possibility of empowering people throughknowledge. On the side of challenges we will look at three major challenges: (a) the need to re-think our education systems to prepare the human resources with the skills the new environmentrequires; (b) the danger of increasing technology gaps and of social exclusion forces that mayobliterate or seriously limit the effective use of the knowledge and the tools generated by advancesin science; and (c) the need to develop the new social and cultural structures that are required toconvert the potential progress generated by the advances in science and technology into effectivedevelopment. This refers to the institutional dimension of development.

In section 4 we will analyze in more detail the specific case of the impact of ICTapplications to agricultural and rural development. Special emphasis will be placed on the role ofICT in facilitating the emergence of learning networks, and in generating changing patterns ofresearch organization. Learning networks are those that facilitate the development of interactiveknowledge generation (learning processes) through the interaction among researchers,extensionists, farmers and other development agents. A particularly innovative case, that ofPanelaNet, is analyzed in section 4.2.3. Learning networks can be seen as agricultural knowledgesystems that emerge as a consequence of new client groups, new delivery systems, newnetworking and new relationships among education, research and extension.

The rapid changes that are taking place due to scientific and technological advances, thechanging economic and market situation, the changing role of the State and of the private sector,and an increased concern for poverty and for environmental and ecological aspects of naturalresource use, is leading to the emergence of a new paradigm for agricultural research for


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development. Three ongoing processes that reflect this emerging paradigm will be analyzed insection 5, that are aimed at taking advantage of the opportunities that are being generated by thesetrends, as well as being able to respond to the increasing development challenges we confront.First, the effort being carried out by the OECD countries of developing an integrated AgriculturalKnowledge System (AKS), based on re-thinking the relationship and the interaction betweenagricultural education, research, and extension. Second, the process of institutionaltransformation of the research infrastructures that is taking place in many developing countries, inevolving from a NARIs model to a NARS model for agricultural research (NARS integration).Third, the changes that are taking place in international agricultural research for development,seeking to strengthen research partnerships through the Global Forum on Agricultural Research(GFAR), as a way of providing a framework for the mobilization of the global agriculturalresearch community around the topics of food security, poverty eradication and sustainabledevelopment. This third initiative seeks to complement the CGIAR, by integrating the other 96%of global agricultural research to the development objectives that have been mentioned. Thepresent efforts of the Global Forum of formulating a Global Shared Vision of agricultural researchfor development (ARD), and of promoting the development of innovative research partnershipsthat respond to the new environment analyzed in this paper, are briefly reviewed.

2. The Development Challenge

As we near the threshold of the 21st century the world is faced with an increasinglycomplex challenge of feeding its growing population, while assuring an equitable and sustainabledevelopment. Scientific and technological progress is generating the knowledge and the tools tomake this possible. Nevertheless, the environmental and socio-economic deterioration that isbeing confronted in many parts of the world poses an unprecedented challenge of mobilizing andapplying the potential capacity scientific progress has generated, to the solution of these problemsand to generate a sustainable and equitable development process. The capacity to respondsuccessfully to this situation will have an impact on the well being of all societies, making it aglobal issue. And the rapid process of deterioration, with its long-term and pervasive impacts,gives it a sense of urgency that requires an effective and collective response.

Despite the very important technological advances of this century, including those of theGreen Revolution, the world is still faced with increasing poverty, both urban and rural poverty.The figures are staggering:

• More that 800 million remain undernourished.• One third of the pre-school children are in this situation, with the impact this has on

school performance and future productivity.• In some countries more than 65% of the population remain below the poverty line.• By 2025 the world’s population will exceed 8 billion, which represents an increase of

2.5 billion in the next 20 years.

Recent studies carried out by IFPRI and other organizations have clearly analyzed variouscontrasting trends that are presently taking place, and that will predominate during the comingdecades. On the one hand, the aggregate supply/demand picture for food as compared topopulation presents a relatively balanced picture, if present investment levels in agriculturalresearch are maintained or increased. But despite this positive picture at the global level, theworld will continue to face a dual and contradictory situation, based on two different realities. Onthe one hand, wealthy countries, together with a small number of developing countries (mainlyfrom Asia), will enjoy low food prices and food surpluses, or affordable imports. On the other


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hand, poorer, slowly growing countries will face a growing problem of food security that willhave to be solved through food imports.

Food surplus will be generated in developed countries, specially the U.S., and a growingfood deficit accompanied by growing food imports will predominate in developing countries. Theproportion of the malnourished population, specially in the case of vulnerable populations, willcontinue to increase. If instead of maintaining present rates of investment in agricultural research,national and international institutions further cut back their investments, the relatively favorableaggregate food situation could worsen, generating a global food security situation and worseningenvironmental problems and sustainability.

Desertification, deforestation and environmental deterioration represent a rapidly growingproblem, even in countries that are well-endowed in natural resources. With the population likelyto increase by another 2.5 billion by the year 2020, and the problems of increasing naturalresource degradation, agricultural research is faced with a major challenge. This demanding taskis to improve farm family income to alleviate poverty, increase food production, provideemployment opportunities for the resource poor and landless farmers to ensure householdfood security, while conserving the natural resources in a sustainable fashion.

3. Information, Knowledge and Development: New Opportunities andChallenges created by the Scientific Revolution

Knowledge has become the most important factor of production, and it plays a criticalrole in our capacity to respond to the challenges of food security, poverty eradication andsustainable development analyzed in the previous section. The recent World Development Reportof the World Bank concentrates on this topic: Knowledge for Development. The main thesis ofthe report is that, given the central role of knowledge in economic growth and sustainabledevelopment, it is important to understand how people and societies acquire and use knowledge,and why they sometimes fail to do so, as a key instrument for the improvement of livelihoods,specially in resource-scarce environments.

In his now classical research on economic growth, Robert M. Solow tried to quantify theproportion of growth that cannot be explained by an increase in the traditional factors ofproduction: capital, labor and land. The so-called residual factor, later analyzed as Total FactorProductivity, represented as much as 70% of economic growth. Three main factors determine thisresidual factor: education (human resources), institutions and knowledge. Knowledge includestechnology, but also goes beyond it. It includes the capacity to generate knowledge, as well asthe capacity to adapt it to local circumstances, to discuss and assimilate it among stakeholders (i.e.farmers), blending it with local knowledge and wisdom. The process of social appropriation ofknowledge plays a role as important as the generation of this knowledge.1

Reflecting this general trend, agricultural production is becoming increasinglyknowledge-based and science-intensive. The Green Revolution in Asia and elsewhere

1 For an analysis of the process of social appropriation of knowledge in the context of adeveloping country, see Fernando Chaparro: Conocimiento, Innovaciòn y Construcciòn deSociedad; Bogotà, Tercer Mundo Editores, 1998. This book develops the concept of thesocial capital of knowledge.


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demonstrated dramatically how science and technology can contribute to the solution of foodsecurity and to the world’s capacity to respond to the growing population. The increments inyields in wheat, maiz and rice made a very significant contribution to assuring basic food supplydespite the population explosion. More recently, new strategic research areas have emerged anddeveloped, changing the science-base of agricultural research and with profound effects on thecapacity to produce food and manage natural resources and the environment. There are three newkey areas of knowledge that are playing a critical role in potentializing or empowering ourcapacity to respond to the development challenges mentioned in the previous section:(a) Biotechnology and its various applications, (b) Information and Communications Technology(ICT), and (c) research areas related to agroecology and Sustainable Agriculture. In this paper wewill mainly analyze the impact of the second one (ICT), with only a limited reference to the firstone. The reason for having chosen ICT is because of the potential these new technologies have forfacilitating the process of empowering people through knowledge, which is one of the keydimensions of development. We will be coming back to this concept throughout this paper.

3.1 Biotechnology and the Development of Proprietary Technology

Modern techniques for gene improvement, specially gene transfer, are bringing aboutnotable progress in agriculture. Until now this area of science has been applied primarily totemperate crops. But the potential for applying these new techniques to crops of other ecosystems,as well as to the world of soils, where it could serve to “biologise” its management methods, isenormous. These new research areas do not replace traditional plant breeding and productionsystems research (including on-farm research). On the contrary, the new research areas aregenerating enabling technologies that complement and deepen the previous research approaches.They provide new tools for addressing these issues, which can be combined with other veryimportant research tools related to crop improvement and crop management.

These new areas of science, and the enabling technologies they generate, represent a greatpotential in terms of increasing the capacity to respond to the social and economic challenges thatare faced in terms of poverty, resource-degradation and food security. If well utilized, they cansignificantly increase the capacity to cope with these problems and promote development. But, atthe same time, these trends can also lead to widening technology gaps between developed anddeveloping countries, due to differential research capacities and to the increasing limitations ofaccessing these technologies, given their nature as proprietary technologies. This is what a recentreport of the CGIAR Private Sector Committee calls the barriers to the freedom to operate thatresearch institutions and developing countries will face, due to the increasing number ofproprietary technologies.2

This trend reflects an important change that is taking place in the nature of biologicaltechnologies. The evolution from technologies that manipulate plants (species, varieties) totechnologies that manipulate cells and molecules, has led to the emergence of technologies thatare much more easily appropriated. It is not easy to reproduce or duplicate either thebiotechnological process that has led to the final product, nor the final product, given thecomplexity of the knowledge involved and the investment requirements. The fact that anincreasing proportion of the relevant knowledge and techniques are of a proprietary nature ishaving two important implications. On the one hand, the flow of knowledge is increasinglyconstrained by this new reality. Secondly, in order to participate in the technology development

2 See CGIAR: Stengthening CGIAR-Private Sector Partnerships in Biotechnology; CGIARSecretariat, April 30, 1997.


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process it is important for any research institute (IARC or NARS) to develop a research capacity aswell as to generate research results (a knowledge asset), that enables it to participate in activeknowledge exchanges, through joint ventures or other relevant research partnerships. As a recentreport points out: “If a global ‘trait market’ evolves, developing countries and the internationalcentres will be able to participate in this market more effectively if they have a cache of ‘tradingchips’ in the form of traits generated through their own research.”3 The knowledge-exchangecapacity and bargaining power of research institutions becomes an important element in the newcontext.

These breakthroughs in science are generating two important challenges. The first one isthat of developing a biosafety capacity in developing countries and of monitoring theenvironmental, health and socio-economic impact of the new technologies, specially in the caseof transgenic plants. This is a major ethical challenge modern science confronts, and thatuniversities and research centres in Europe and in the South should jointly address. This is acritically important issue, specially with the growing expressions of concern that have been voicedby different sectors in society, including farmers and consumers.

The second challenge is that of how to integrate the new actors that are emerging in thesenew areas of agricultural research, and how can they contribute to the development objectives wepursue. The role of the private sector has become increasingly important in this research area,reflecting the increasing proprietary nature of the technologies generated by molecular biologyresearch, and the resulting incentives to invest in them. Presently, it is estimated that the privatesector is responsible for approximately 80% of the research in plant biotechnology worldwide. By1992 the US private sector alone was spending 559 million in agricultural biotechnology research,reflecting a 50% increase over 1985. One reason for this surge is that the market for agriculturalinputs is big. Farmers in the US purchase US$3.5 billion of planting seed per year. It is estimatedthat total global sales of agricultural biotechnology products will reach US$5 billion by the year2000.4

The challenge here is to develop a framework or environment that may facilitate strategicalliances and joint ventures between the various actors involved in these research efforts, bringingcloser together the normative framework and incentive structures related to the development oftechnologies of a public good nature, with the framework and incentives that prevail in thebiotechnology industry and in the development of proprietary technologies.

3.2 Role of ICT in Promoting the Development of Knowledge Societies

Information and communication technologies have been with us for many years, and theyhave played an important role in promoting agricultural and rural development during the lastseveral decades. The role of T.V. and radio in rural education and extension services has beenwell documented in many developing countries. These technologies will continue to play a criticalrole in the developing world, along with the new information and communication technologies.But what characterizes the new ICT revolution is the convergence of three previouslydifferentiated technological sectors, whose convergence has generated a qualitative difference in

3 See CGIAR: Ibid., p.3.

4 See GCIAR Private Sector Committee: Global Partnership in Agricultural Research: APrivate Sector Perspective; Washington, CGIAR Secretariat, 1997.


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the way we can generate, disseminate and transfer knowledge, and thus on its capacity tocontribute to development. These technological sectors are:

• Telecommunications technology• Informatics: computers and information processing technology• Data and image transfer technology and interactive multimedia

The convergence of these three sectors has created not only a new technological andproduction sector, but also a new social and economic reality. The development of theinexpensive desktop computer complemented with high-speed telecommunication links isdrastically changing the environment in which a person and a community live and interact.Improved information and communication technologies, increased information and managementskills, and decreasing communication costs, are making instant connectivity and much quickerinformation flows among interested stakeholders possible.

In the case of research, this opens up the possibility for the researcher to interact with amuch wider community of peers that work in the same research area or topic, with whom he/shecan interact in real time, creating a new virtual community of researchers that is different from thetraditional network of contacts and of researchers (peers) working in a similar field. Someinteresting examples of these virtual communities of research are starting to appear, even indeveloping countries, specially in the case of regional research networks that are evolving towardselectronic networks, with the capacity for interaction among its members in real time. One of themain obstacles we are facing is that of a cultural change that has to take place among researchers.It is not immediately obvious to everyone that behind a computer with Internet access there arepotential new ways of organizing his/her research efforts. The perception of what is possible, andthe learning of how to develop and implement these new potentialities, requires a change ofattitude, a change of mindset. It is not only a matter of limited access to Internet, which is aconstraint that with time can change.

Outside the research world, there is an equally important impact that can be generated inthe wider community. A person with hardly any training, except basic literacy and keyboardskills, can retrieve and manipulate data from various sources, easily and cheaply. And the personcan interact with extensionists, with community leaders or with co-workers in other places that arefacing similar problems. This is opening up the possibility of dynamic and proactive interactionand knowledge flows among stakeholders, community leaders and “practitioners” ofdevelopment, with the capacity to empower them through learning processes based on theseknowledge flows and on the exchange of information on what works and what doesn’t, and onhow best to do things. In section 4 we will analyze these aspects in more detail.

3.3 The Challenge: Harnessing the New Areas of Science for Development

The rapid rate of scientific progress and technological change that characterizes this turnof century is opening up new opportunities and new tools to address the complex challenge ofdevelopment. At the same time, the rapid rate of scientific and technological change and thedifferential capacity to access and use knowledge, can lead to increasing technology gaps andsocial exclusion forces that may seriously limit the effective use of the knowledge and toolsgenerated by the advances in science.

Given the magnitude of the changes we are confronting, we can characterize it as achange of “techno-economic paradigm”, to use the concept that Dosi, Freeman and others havedeveloped for the industrial sector. “Certain types of technical change – defined as changes in‘techno-economic paradigm’ – have such widespread consequences for all sectors of the economy


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that their diffusion is accompanied by a major structural crisis of adjustment, in which social andinstitutional changes are necessary to bring about a better ‘match’ between the new technology andthe system of social management of the economy.”5 The challenge is that of how to bring aboutthose social and institutional changes that are required for an adequate social management of thenew technologies in terms of their effective contribution to development objectives.

Looking at recent experiences of developing countries, the capacity to generate andeffectively use knowledge in development efforts, and thus to respond successfully to thechallenges mentioned above, is closely correlated with three basic factors. The first one iseducation and human resources development, which continues to be the main limiting factor inmost developing countries. The second one is development and strengthening of a knowledgegeneration capacity through research (R&D capacity), specially in the case of agriculture andnatural resource management where site-specific research is required to adapt technology to localcircumstances. The third one relates to the development of an innovation capacity, that requiresnot only effective extension services, but also more farmer involvement to assure a process ofsocial appropriation of knowledge. This third factor can only be achieved through a people-oriented development effort, that places the farmer and the local community at the centre, andthat is based on participatory approaches that involves the end-user from the conception of eachproject or activity. It is important to point out that in promoting innovation, which is the capacityto apply knowledge to the improvement of production or of a social service, the knowledge cancome from anywhere. It can be transferred from abroad or it can be produced locally.

In order to analyze these questions in more detail, we will concentrate the analysis in oneof the three new areas of science, that of ICTs. Under what conditions can ICTs become moreeffective development tools for agricultural and rural development? Does the new technologyhave the capacity to facilitate leapfrogging for developing countries? Or will the newtechnologies, on the contrary, lead to increasing differences and inequalities between the havesand the have-nots in terms of their capacity to access and use knowledge? What are thedevelopment implications of the various ICT-applications that are being generated continuously inthe very dynamic technological environment that characterizes this technological sector? Is thevision of a Knowledge Society that empowers people through knowledge a realistic one? Underwhat conditions and with what requirements? These questions refer to the social and institutionalchanges that are required to facilitate the emergence of the new techno-economic paradigm thatgoes along with the new technologies.

4. ICT Applications and their Role in Agricultural and Rural Development

Given the fact that ICTs are a generic technology, their applications to agriculture and torural development are very extensive and pervasive. Agricultural information systems haveattracted much attention because of the importance of facilitating access to information and toknowledge. The information systems themselves are in a process of profound transformation withthe spectacular development of the Internet, and the possibility of evolving towards web-basedinformation systems, even in developing countries. But beyond databases and informationsystems, the applications of ICT to agricultural and rural development are appearing everywhere.

5 C. Freeman and C. Pérez: “Structural Crises of Adjustment, Business Cycles andInvestment Behaviour”; in G. Dosi et al: Technical Change and Economic Theory; London,Pinter Publishers, 1988.


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They are profoundly transforming extension services through the use of multimedia technologyand through the use of long distance education technology, as well as through the possibility ofdeveloping innovative approaches based on interactive knowledge development processes thatinvolve researchers, extensionists and farmers. They are having a clear impact on our capacity tomonitor the environmental impact of agriculture and the degradation of natural resources throughremote sensor data (soil erosion, deforestation, monitoring of fish stocks). A specific case of thelatter is that of the set of technologies related to precision agriculture, with the impact this mayhave on both comparative advantages (production costs) and on the sustainability of agriculturalproduction (facilitating the development of a “cleaner agriculture”). Geographical InformationSystems are opening new approaches to regional planning and to the management of naturalresources. Instant connectivity and electronic networks have the potential for changing the waywe do research, with profound impacts on the organization of research (at both the national andinternational levels) and on the need to re-think the interaction between research, education andextension.

Since this is potentially a very extensive field, ICT applications to agricultural and ruraldevelopment can be analyzed from two different perspectives or points of view: (a) theagricultural and/or rural development activity they influence, and (b) the nature of the serviceprovided by the ICT. By interrelating and crossing these two dimensions an analytical matrix willbe developed that helps to identify the most relevant ICT applications, and the functions they playin development. This matrix is presented in Figure 1 below.

4.1 Sectors of Application of ICT in Agricultural and Rural Development

ICT applications can be analyzed in terms of the agricultural and/or rural activity theyinfluence. There are five main areas of impact of the new technologies:

a) Research and extension activitiesb) Production and processing (primary and secondary)c) Marketing and trade (commerce)d) Natural resources management and monitoringe) Rural development and community action

Since in this paper we are only interested in a quick overview of ICT applications and theirimpact on development in order to highlight their contribution to networking and to empoweringpeople through knowledge, we will not analyze each ICT application in depth. Examples of thevarious ICT applications are found in Figure No. 1 that is analyzed below (see section 4.2). In thissection we will only make a brief reference to the impact of ICT on research and extension, andon rural development and community action.

4.1.1 Impact of ICT on Research and Extension

The impact of ICT in agricultural research is quite significant. This is taking placethrough three means. The first one has to do with the changing nature of agricultural informationsystems, which is having a profound impact on how research results are communicated anddisseminated. With the development of web-based information systems the possibility ofaccessing databases and information on-line has increased dramatically, with the concomitantproblems that is generating from the point of view of the confidentiality of the information and ofthe economics of information management (economic value of information). The rapid expansionof web publishing is dramatically changing the way people access information, and is leading tothe development of metadatabases, based on virtual libraries that provide direct access to thepublication, wherever it is located, as long as the publication is accessible through the web. We


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will come back to this issue in the next section, at looking at the services being provided by ICTapplications. Secondly, the very significant advances that are being made in software applicationsrelated to agricultural research techniques, coupled with advances in other areas of science, suchas molecular biology, is accelerating the research process enormously and making it much moreefficient. This is one of the areas in which NARS can seriously fall behind, compared to IARCs,to ARIs and obviously to the private sector. Access to research software is one of the importantdimensions through which the ICT technology gap can be avoided or reduced.

But the most important impact on research is being generated by a third factor. Thepresence of new actors in agricultural research (such as the private sector, NGOs and universities),the changing nature of networking, the possibility of working jointly with researchers in differentinstitutional locations by interacting with them in real time, the possibility of developing virtualcommunities of scholars working on the same topic but dispersed in space, and the increasingimportance of knowledge systems and learning systems that are based on interactive knowledgedevelopment processes, and thus on a different concept on how knowledge is generated andmanaged in this new environment, is leading to profound changes in the research world. Thesocial organization of science is changing, given changes that are appearing in the organizationalstructure of research (how research is organized), as well as changes in the relationship betweenresearch, education and extension.

4.1.2 Impact of ICT on Rural Development and Community Action

But ICT is not only transforming the world of research. It is also having a profoundimpact on how to take a new approach to rural development and community action. ICTapplications and the Internet are opening new opportunities and developing new approaches to theneed confronted by rural people and by grassroots agricultural organizations to establish verticaland horizontal channels of communication in order to increase their capacity to generate and useknowledge, and thus increase the effectiveness of their development efforts. This is done througha variety of means. One of them is to facilitate the access by farmers and other end-users to theinformation resources that exist in the Internet or in other locations. The second one is to empowerthese organizations by strengthening their capacity to enter in dialogue and exchange informationamong themselves, and with researchers and policy-makers beyond rural communities, on howbest to cope with their needs and improve the effectiveness of their action. The third one relates tothe integration of modern scientific knowledge with traditional knowledge or local wisdom,through a two-way flow of information and knowledge that allows to capture live or uncodifiedknowledge at the grassroots integrating it into the existing pool of knowledge available to otherusers. Several pilot projects are being developed to address this issue, among which we shouldhighlight the InterDev Project that is being developed by a group of NGOs and development-related organizations.6

In this area of communication (ICT) and rural development there is an increasing body ofexperience being generated by a range of interesting projects that are presently being carried out inSub-Sahara Africa, in Latin America and the Caribbean, in Asia/Pacific, and in West Asia/NorthAfrica. A recent FAO study analysis some of the lessons that have been learned from theseexperiences of integrating the Internet and other ICT applications in rural development

6 See GRET: INTERDEV - Linking Global Knowledge with Local Wisdom; Paris, GRET,March 1999.


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programmes.7 The Communication and Development Approach used in these projects is similar tothe participatory research methodologies that have been developed in agricultural research fordevelopment. One of the main challenges these projects confront is that of how to scale-up fromsuccessful but isolated cases, to processes of social change and innovation at the societal level thatmay have an impact on all the rural population.

4.2 Nature of the Service Offered by the ICT Application

The second perspective from which we can analyze ICT applications and theircontribution to agricultural and rural development is that of the services that are provided by eachICT application. For developing countries, there are five key services, or functions, that are veryclosely related to ICT applications:

a) Access to information through different types of Agricultural Information Systems (AIS).A specific subset of these are the Management Information Systems (MIS).

b) Monitoring the situation of natural resources and of environmental impact throughdifferent information-processing tools (i.e. analysis of environment deterioration, soilerosion, deforestation, etc.).

c) Education and Communication Technologies that are playing a very important role ingenerating new approaches to learning and to knowledge management.

d) Networking: ICTs can contribute greatly to relating people/institutions among them andfacilitating the emergence of “Virtual Communities of Stakeholders” that generate andexchange information and knowledge among themselves. If well managed, networking isa first step in the direction of developing interactive knowledge development processesthat may lead to learning networks.

e) Decision-support Systems (DSS): Tools and practices through which data and informationprovide relevant knowledge inputs for informed decision-making. These tools are playingan important role in converting information systems into knowledge systems.

The main objective of these various ICT applications, from a development perspective, isthat of Empowering People through Knowledge. By this we mean developing in people a capacityto achieve their development objectives and goals, through the generation, acquisition and use ofknowledge. Another way of expressing it is that of developing in people and in communities alearning and innovation capacity, that increases the effectiveness of their efforts to solveproblems and to improve their lives. This is one of the main characteristics of a KnowledgeSociety, which is one in which knowledge so much permeates its social fibber that it empowerspeople and communities, increasing the effectiveness of their development efforts throughinformed decision-making, and through their capacity to harness science and various forms ofknowledge to achieve the objectives of poverty eradication, food security and sustainabledevelopment.8

If we relate these six functions or services that ICT applications provide, to the sectors ofapplication analyzed in the previous section, we obtain a matrix that helps to visualize the range

7 See Don Richardson: The Internet and Rural and Agricultural Development: An IntegratedApproach, Rome, FAO, 1997.

8 There is an increasing literature on this topic. See for example Robin Mansell and Uta When(eds.): Knowledge Societies: Information Technology for Sustainable Development; Oxford,Oxford University Press, 1998.


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that is covered by the various ICT applications to agricultural and rural development. This matrixis presented in Figure No. 1. We will not attempt an analysis of the different cases or applicationsthat are described in the different cells of the matrix, since this would go far beyond the scope ofthis paper. But some comments will be made on two of the functions that constitute the rows ofthe matrix: Agricultural Information Systems (access to information) and Networking.

4.2.1 Agricultural Information Systems

The purpose of Agricultural Information Systems (AIS) is that of facilitating central accessto information that is localized in decentralized databases. The AIS is thus constituted by a systemof interrelated databases and information services, that seek to respond to the information needsof the various types of end-users (researchers, policy-makers, farmers and developmentpractitioners). WAICENT of FAO is one of the main agricultural global information systemsthrough which one can access different databases, both of a documentary and a statistical (or data)nature. WAICENT has been playing a key role in developing a normative framework aimed atfacilitating the flow of agricultural information among stakeholders and interested parties. At theglobal level, the importance of the databases and the information resources of the CGIAR shouldbe clearly highlighted, since they constitute one of the most important reservoirs of knowledge onagricultural and rural development. CABI is playing an important role in facilitating the access toagricultural information through the marketing of it.

In order to facilitate access to these global databases by end-users in developing countries(i.e. researchers, policy-makers and farmers) it is important to develop the skills and the tools todo so in developing countries, as well as to strengthen the capacity for information management inthese countries. This refers to the development of National and Regional Agricultural InformationSystems (NAIS/RAIS), that will be analyzed in section 5.3.3. below.

4.2.2 Networking: Changing Patterns of Research Organization

The second major service facilitated by ICT that will be analyzed is that of networking.Networks are not new. They have been with us for quite some time. Since agricultural research isincreasingly a global undertaking, that builds upon research efforts that are carried out in differentinstitutional locations (IARCs, NARS, Advanced Research Institutes, Universities, privatefirms), networks have played a very important role in bringing these efforts together and infacilitating joint research efforts. A network can be visualized as an association of individuals orinstitutions with a shared purpose or goal, that participate in two-way exchanges of informationand, in many cases, in collective efforts to achieve the shared objectives. But networks varyimmensely in terms of type of participants, nature of the activity that brings them together, degreeof structuring of the network, degree of openness, and degree of institutionalization, among othercharacteristics.

Almost ten years ago, Donald Plucknett, Nigel Smith and Selcuk Ozgediz made a verythorough review of the experience of international agricultural research networks in the seventiesand eighties9 In this book the authors developed a conceptual framework for studying networkeffectiveness, and they proposed a typology of research networks, in which they identified fourtypes: (a) Information Exchange Networks, (b) Material Exchange Networks, (c) ScientificConsultation Networks, and (d) Collaborative Research Networks.

9 See Donald L. Plucknett, Nigel J. H. Smith and Selcuk Ozgediz: Networking in InternationalAgricultural Research; Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1990


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Ten years later we confront a very different environment. The institutional structure hascontinued to diversify with stronger partners among the National Agricultural Research Systems(NARS) of developing countries, and with new actors playing an increasingly important role, as itis the case with the private sector. The science-base for agricultural research has broaden, withthe spectacular development of molecular biology and other areas of science, making it necessaryto re-think the organization of research efforts. The ICT revolution is changing the context inwhich networks operate since immediate connectivity is now feasible.

Furthermore, for effective development-impact one needs to develop closer links betweenthe researcher, the extensionist and the farmer, leading to the need to develop innovativenetworks or knowledge systems based on interactive learning and knowledge developmentprocesses that take place through the interaction among these various actors. Thus the process ofnetworking is no longer limited to Research Networks, that basically link researchers that work ina given field. Although research networks will continue to play a very important role, they areincreasingly being complemented by development-oriented networks that bring togetherresearchers, extensionists, farmers and other development agents. These “mixed networks”, thatcut across R&D, production and rural development are the most dynamic and innovative ones.

The emerging experiences with these new types of communities of researchers and ofpractitioners is different from the traditional networks that have existed for a long time. The factthat their members are able to interact with each other in real time, while at the same time they doso with a capacity to process a significant amount of information and with improved knowledgemanagement skills, is leading to important differences with the traditional networks that we areacquainted with. Five important differences should be highlighted:

a) In the first place, the velocity of the circulation and exchange of knowledge among itsmembers has increased dramatically (specially in the case of electronic networks), not beingnecessary to wait for the periodic meetings of the traditional networks that take place every 6or 12 months.

b) Secondly, the amount of information and knowledge a network can take into consideration andprocess has increased exponentially, given their improved information management capacitythrough ICT applications and through improved knowledge management skills.

c) Thirdly, the new advances in ICT are opening up the possibility of carrying out joint researchefforts through cyberspace, given the possibility of interaction among researchers in real time,making it possible to pool the research capacities that are located in different researchinstitutions. The experience of APAN (Asia/Pacific Advanced Networking) in actuallyjointly carrying out research through cyberspace, has shown very interesting results. Themain limitation here is the high-speed connection that is required for this type of network tooperate.10 But, in the near future, this type of infrastructural limitation could be overcome.

10 See Seishi Ninomiya: Agricultural Research, Cooperation and Agroinformatics over APAN;Tsukuba, APAN/AG, March 1999.


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Figure No. 1 - ICT Applications to Agricultural and Rural Development

Sectors of Application:

Service Provided:

Research &Extension

Production &Processing

Marketing &Trade

Natural ResourceManagement

Rural Development &Community Action

Access to Information andAccess to Internet *

• AIS: S&T Information• RAIS & Meta-Databases• Open Knowledge Market

Places• Research Software

• AIS: Availabletechnologies

• Techno-Economic Info• Farm Management

Software

• AIS: Market Info• Market Information &

Marketing Boards

• AIS: NRM topics• Sustainable Agriculture

Indicators & Monitor.• Integrating Local

Wisdom (InterDev)

• Info on Best Practice• Internet Community

Centres (telecentres)• Integrating Local

Wisdom (InterDev)Monitoring Nat. Resources& Environment / RemoteSensors

• Development of GIS• Info on Biosafety

Regulations

• Precision Agriculture• Info on Sustainable Agric.

Technol. available• Assessment Expansion

Agricultural Frontier

• Information on TradeFlows

• Info on EnvironmentRegulation & Trade

• GIS & NRM• Precision Agriculture• Early Warning System

• GIS & Population• GIS & Poverty

Educational &Communication Technology

• Farmer Field Schools• Training Tools• Continuing Education

• Distance Learning Progrs.for extension

• Rural TV & Radio• Interactive Multimedia &

Extension (VERCON)

• Info on IPRs and onhow to negotiate them

• E-mail commerce andimpact on trade

• Distance LearningProgrs. on Environ.

• Rural TV & Radio

• Integrated RuralCommunication

• Rural TV & Radio• Rural Information

CentresNetworking • Research Networks

• Electronic Res. Networks• Virtual Communities of

Researchers & Extension.

• Innovation Networks• SME Development

Networks

• Distribution Networks• Market Info Networks

• NRM Networks • Rural DevelopmentNetworks

• Particip. Res. Networks• Leadership Develop.

Decision-support Systems(DSS)

• Setting the Agenda: DSSfor R&D priorities andother research decisions

• DSS for production • Market intelligence • DSS for NRM • DSS for CommunityLeaders

• DSS in DevelopmentAgencies

General Objective: Empowering People Through Knowledge

* AIS: Agricultural Information Systems. RAIS: Regional Agricultural Information Systems.


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d) Fourthly, the new technologies are making possible interactive knowledge development. Thisrequires a two-way flow of communication in real time, a dialogue, that makes it possible notonly to exchange knowledge, but also to create new knowledge from the interaction ofdifferent knowledge sources. The more innovative networks are moving in this direction.

e) Finally, and this is a very important feature, these new technologies make it possible for adynamic process to take place that can capture live or uncodified knowledge at the grassrootslevel (local wisdom), and integrate it into the existing knowledge base on a given topic, thusenriching it. This last characteristic is being utilized in some innovative projects that areaimed at seeking to integrate modern scientific knowledge with traditional knowledge, thusgenerating a cumulative and empowering process through the dialogue and exchange ofknowledge among “practitioners” of development. This is the case of the InterDev Projectthat is being developed by a group of NGOs.

Thus in the present context research and extension networks form part of an emergingrange of research partnerships and collaborative research mechanisms, such as research consortia,joint research projects and licensing agreements. These new organizational forms do not replacethe research centres and institutes; they complement them. They rather open the possibility ofcombining the resources the research institutions have in an agile and flexible way through joint(sometimes multidisciplinary) research programmes. These networks also provide the possibilityof integrating a research centre with researchers that are working “upstream” in the universities inmore basic research, or “downstream” with other researchers, extensionists, developmentpractitioners and farmers in adaptive research, extension and rural innovation. These types ofnetworks, some of which are mentioned in Figure No. 1, can become knowledge systems orinnovation systems that are based on a different approach to the interaction between agriculturaleducation, research, extension and innovation.11

There are two pending questions with respect to the impact of ICT on these changingorganizational patterns for research, extension and innovation. One is the degree to which, in thenear future, the tightly-nit network with a highly structured research agenda can evolve towards a“virtual research centre” that may match the performance and the scientific productivity of acentre of excellence. This is still not yet the case, but the question is, will it be feasible, andunder what circumstances. It is interesting to point out that the University of Princeton is presentlycarrying out a study aimed at the factors that influence, or limit, scientific productivity incyberspace (electronic networks). The University of Sussex in the UK has a similar programmeaimed at the changing nature and role of research networks, specially taking into consideration theimpact of informatics.

A second related question is whether the impact of these new types of networks will bemore important “downstream”, rather than “upstream”. That is, the impact of networking may bemuch more important in knowledge dissemination, and in generating interactive learningprocesses through the interaction between education (training), research, extension and innovationat the farm or community level. Thus they may play an important role in the emergence of

11 It is important to point out that in the case of Sub-Sahara Africa a joint effort will be made byCTA and the Global Forum (NARS Secretariat) in the area of promoting networking. Theideas being developed in GFAR are presented in this paper. For the ideas that are orientingthe activities of CTA see: Rutger J. Engelhard: Inter-Networking for National AgriculturealSystems in ACP Countries: Making the Internet Work; Wageningen, CTA, August 1999.


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knowledge systems and innovation processes of this type, but not such an important role in basicresearch, given the fact that they cannot yet compete with centres of excellence. This would pointin the direction of a complementarity between the two forms of research organization.

These changes in the organizational structure of the scientific community and in theorganization of research are not only taking place in agricultural research. Recent studies analyzevery similar changes that are taking place in other scientific areas.12 In section 5 we will analyzesome of the changes these trends are leading to.

4.2.3 An Interesting Case of Networking: PanelaNet13

There are several interesting cases of networking that are emerging from the efforts someNARS are doing in moving in the direction of the development-oriented networks that bringtogether researchers, extensionists, farmers (producers) and development agents. Oneparticularly interesting case is that of PanelaNet, developed by CORPOICA in Colombia, inclose collaboration with the producers of “panela”, a brown-sugar product that is produced fromsugar-cane by very small producers (trapiches). This is a network that has emerged from theefforts the researchers were carrying out with the farmers, in getting them to use the researchresults and in further improving the technology that had been developed. The network nowincludes, among its members, researchers, extensionists, farmers, persons linked to themarketing of the product, and development agents that manage credit and other support facilitiesin panela production. The objectives of the network is to:

a) Support the research projects being carried out on various aspects of “panela production”,seeking to develop synergies among them and to assure close interaction with the producers.

b) Seek to integrate the various actors that intervene in this commodity chain, that go fromresearch on the sugar cane varieties better apt for panela-production (it has particularrequirements), down to the primary processing into panela in the trapiche, and into themarketing and distribution of the product that has technological problems of conservation andof other types.

c) Develop a community of stakeholders in order to facilitate the exchange of information andexperiences among them, basically via e-mail (although they have recently established a webpage), since most members have to be reached by e-mail or even fax. In fact some of theproducers out in the field that participate in the network have to be reached by word-of-mouth

12 See for example the analysis in: Michael Gibbons, et al.: The New Production of Knowledge:The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies; London, SagePublications, 1994. On the emerging reality of the virtual research centre in the naturalsciences see James P. Vary and Douglas R. Fils: The Virtual Laboratory: Electronic Supportfor Cooperative Scientific Research; Paris, UNESCO/IITAP, January 21, 1999. This papergoes into the analysis of economic, legal, organizational, social and psychological, and ethicalconsiderations of this emerging form of research organization. In agricultural research weare lagging behind other areas of science.

13 The author would like to acknowledge the inputs he has received from the leaders ofPanelaNet in CORPOICA and the other participating institutions (Hugo Garcia, AnyelaCamargo, Francisco Salazar and the rest of the network members), through an ongoingdialogue aimed at systematizing this experience in terms of the lessons we can learn from it.


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(no telecommunications available). But the core-group of the network has e-mail facilities,and some of them have access to the web.

d) Consolidate all the relevant sources of information on panela in order to be able to analyze allthe relevant aspects of interest to researchers and to producers and to facilitate their use by theend-users (the stakeholders). This refers to research reports, unpublished data from researchprojects, market information, production statistics, information on the relevant agriculturalmachinery, information on sanitary issues, etc. They are planning to experiment with newways of disseminating this information (experiment with multimedia).

e) An interesting information module they have developed is linked to capturing andsystematizing “live information” (local wisdom) from the producers, that is being fed into theresearch team to improve the research process itself.

f) There is an initially “unplanned” function that has started to emerge, and that is the fact thatthis process has lead to opening up the original projects, very much based in the researchstation, to participatory research approaches with the direct involvement of the farmers.

This network started as a purely Colombian network, and has grown into a regionalnetwork with persons that participate in it in Brazil, Perù, Domenican Republic and othercountries of the region where panela is an important product of peasant economies. They havebecome a Regional Research and Information Network on Panela in Latin America and theCaribbean. The information activities they carry out range from selective dissemination ofresearch results and of the literature coming out, to a question-and-answers service that thenetwork members collectively manage, to electronic discussion groups they are starting toorganize on concrete problems that have been identified through the network. It also includesdirect technical assistance to the producer (extension), with a feedback to the research that is donein CORPOICA and in the other participating organizations.

It is interesting to point out that the members of PanelaNet are starting to considerthemselves a “Virtual Research Centre on Panela”, that is reaching a critical mass of researcherson this topic that CORPOICA alone would never have been able to mobilize (nor any of the otherparticipating institutions). This Virtual Research Centre cuts across the concrete research centres(and other types of organization) in which the network members actually work.

As such, it can be seen as a “Knowledge System” that has emerged in Panela, thatincludes research, training (not formal education), extension, information dissemination,innovation at the farm level (concrete innovations have been introduced in the trapiches), andback to research for further improvement, and/or looking for new technological options or newproducts. And the main element that has brought these different actors together, to interact as aknowledge system, has been the networking ability and the networking capacity that thestakeholders have developed through information and knowledge sharing, through the commonperceptions and interests they have been able to develop on the basis of dialogue, and theopportunities and advantages they have been able to identify for collaboration. But a key aspect toemphasize is that this process of networking has involved a multi-stakeholder networking; notonly networking among researchers. It is also interesting to point out that these multi-stakeholderknowledge systems are one of the key elements in facilitating the integration of the NationalAgricultural Research Systems of developing countries (evolving from the NARIs to the NARSmodel), which is an issue that we will analyze in the next section, in which we will brieflymention some of the main efforts aimed at developing a new paradigm for agricultural research.


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5. Coping with the Challenges: A New Paradigm for Agricultural Research forDevelopment

The deep changes that have been analyzed in the previous sections are leading to the needto develop a New Paradigm for Agricultural Research for Development. In this section wewill briefly analyze three ongoing processes that reflect this emerging paradigm. They are:(a) The effort being carried out by the OECD countries of developing an integrated AgriculturalKnowledge System (AKS), based on re-thinking the relationship and the interaction betweenagricultural education, research, and extension. (b) The process of institutional transformation oftheir research infrastructures that is taking place in many developing countries, in evolving from aNARIs model to a NARS model for agricultural research (NARS integration). (c) Changes that aretaking place in international agricultural research for development, seeking to strengthen researchpartnerships through the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), as a way of providing aframework for the mobilization of the global agricultural research community around the topics offood security, poverty eradication and sustainable development. This third initiative seeks tocomplement the CGIAR, by integrating the other 96% of global agricultural research to thedevelopment objectives that have been mentioned. We will briefly analyze each one.

5.1 Re-thinking the relationship between Agricultural Education, Research andExtension

Two factors are leading to the need to re-think the relationship between agriculturalresearch, education and extension. The first one refers to the rapid changes that are taking placein the science basis for agricultural research, with the very rapid development of molecularbiology, agroecology and other science areas, making it necessary to take a fresh look at theinteraction between education, research and extension. In this new context universities play amore important role, and more complex interactions are taking place between these threefunctions. Secondly, the ICT revolution is changing the context in which networks operate sinceimmediate connectivity is now feasible, opening-up the possibility for new types of innovativeresearch partnerships. Furthermore, recent studies on technical change have clearly shown theimportance of “Agricultural and Rural Knowledge and Information Systems” (ARKIS), constitutedby networks of researchers, extensionists, development practitioners and farmers, in order to beable to generate innovation (technological and social) on the basis of interactive learning andknowledge development processes.14 This last point relates to the importance of networkingamong the different persons and groups that intervene in the knowledge-generation, knowledge-dissemination and knowledge-appropriation (innovation) process, which requires a closer linkbetween the three functions of education, research and extension.

One of the interesting efforts presently underway to rethink the multiple interactionsbetween agricultural education, research and extension is the special programme being carried outby the OECD countries aimed at developing an integrated Agricultural Knowledge System (AKS).Traditionally, in both developed and developing countries these three functions have been in thehands of different institutions, as well as ministries or government agencies, with little interactionamong them. The programme that is being developed among the OECD countries is aimed atdeveloping a capacity of addressing new and more complex tasks through co-ordinated actions by

14 The World Bank and FAO are presently developing rural development programmes that usethe ARKIS approach to the dissemination and utilization of knowledge, seeking to increasethe development impact of agricultural research and extension.


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these three main functions: agricultural education, research and extension. Through the analysisof concrete case studies in different countries, it is expected that best practice will be identified,as well as the factors that intervene in facilitating joint efforts among them and in determining theeffectiveness of these strategic alliances.

While the relationship between the components of the three main branches of anAgricultural Knowledge System used to be largely characterized by a flow of knowledge beinggenerated by research, and disseminated and transformed by education and extension, currentconcepts are leading to a very different approach: one that is based on interactive knowledgedevelopment via knowledge networks which may operate on regional, national or transnationallevels. As a consequence, new client groups, new delivery systems, new networking and newrelationships among research, extension and education is emerging in the case studies beingcarried out by the OECD countries. This new environment and approach is creating innovativerelationships between the main components of the AKS, leading to a much closer interactionamong these three functions, with many agents adopting more than one role.15

5.2 Re-thinking Agricultural Research in Developing Countries: Integration ofNARS

The second case we would like to mention is the deep process of institutionaltransformation of the agricultural research infrastructures that is taking place in developingcountries. With the appearance of new institutional actors, and with the felt need of increasingcooperation and synergisms among them and of more clearly integrating the end-user (the farmer)into the research process, many National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) have recentlyundergone, or are presently considering, significant processes of organizational change. This isparticularly the case of countries in Sub-Sahara Africa and in Latin America and the Caribbean,but the trends are developing everywhere. One of the reasons for this process of institutionalreform is generated by the increasing criticism NARS are facing in terms of the limiteddevelopment impact they are achieving.

The main underlying trend is that of an evolution from an organizational model based onthe almost exclusive role played by large public National Agricultural Research Institutes(NARIs), to one based on national research systems (NARS). As in the case of the OECDcountries, the systems approach seeks not only to integrate the new institutional actors (NGOs,universities, the private sector), but also to develop flexible inter-institutional arrangementsthrough which interactive knowledge development can take place. This is leading to newinnovative forms of partnerships between the public and the private sectors, and to newcollaborative research approaches that bring together NARIs, universities and NGOs. Until veryrecently, the interaction among these three types of organizations had been very weak. Anothertrend that is observable in the changing structure of NARS is that of seeking to more closely relateeducation, research and extension, based on the development of knowledge systems that integratethese three functions in responding to specific user needs, production constraints, or sustainabledevelopment challenges. In this process, the multifunctional character of agriculture and of landuse, as well as the increasing importance of natural resource management, is also leading to achanging institutional picture and changing research requirements. The recent conference

15 Information on this ongoing experience and on the different case studies that are beingprepared can be found at the website that was established for this purpose:http://www.oecd.org/agr/aks/backgr.htm .


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organized by FAO and the Netherlands on this topic analyzed the implications of a multifunctionalapproach to agricultural and land utilization activities.16

5.3 Mobilizing the Global Scientific Community of ARD: The Global Forum onAgricultural Research for Development

The third major dimension that is leading to a new research paradigm for agriculturalresearch is that of the changes that are taking place in international agricultural research fordevelopment (ARD). The context of international agricultural research is changing very rapidlyfor the same reasons already mentioned above: the broadened science-base for agriculturalresearch, the rapid rate of scientific progress, and the diversification of the institutional context ofARD with an increasingly important role played by the new actors. In some research areas,specially in those where proprietary technologies have quickly developed, the private sector isplaying the leading role. More than 80% of total global investment in biotechnology is beinggenerated by the private sector. The corporate research strategies of large private companies haschanged significantly, shifting from strategies that relied basically on their in-house researchcapacity, to strategies that combine a policy of outsourcing research to major Universities that arein the frontier of science in key strategic research areas, with their own in-house research, andwith the development of research partnerships with other companies or research centres that cancontribute to their corporate objectives. Several recent studies on innovation in developedcountries, as well as a recent report by the CGIAR Private Sector Committee, highlight theincreasing importance of innovation and learning networks as a major source of technical changein the contemporary world.17

These contextual changes are leading to two important trends in international agriculturalresearch The first one is the changing role for international research centres (IARCs), which havebeen the main agent of global ARD since the Green Revolution. IARCs will continue to play avery important role, given the quality of their human resources, the importance of the germplasmcollections they hold, and the strategic role they play in generating international public goods thatare required to respond to the development challenges mentioned in section 1 of this paper.

The second trend is the increasing importance of innovative research partnerships andstrategic alliances that can take advantage of the new opportunities and organizational modalitiesthat are emerging for doing research, and for developing information and knowledge systemsbased on networking, such as those described in the previous section. Several factors are stronglyencouraging the various stakeholders of ARD to seek such partnerships and cooperation: (a) themagnitude of the development challenges that are being faced in terms of poverty, food securityand sustainable development; (b) the increasing complexity of research issues and the rapid rate ofscientific and technological progress, that makes it increasingly difficult for any one stakeholderto cope with these requirements; (c) the increasing importance of networks in both knowledge

16 Information on the papers presented at this conference and on the results that were obtainedcan be found at the website of the Maastricht Conference on the Multifunctional Character ofAgriculture and Land (September 12-17, 1999): http://www.fao.org/mfcal .

17 On this topic see CGIAR: Strengthening CGIAR-Private Sector Partnerships inBiotechnology; Washington, CGIAR Secretariat, April 30 1997. Similar trends areobserved in several recent studies on technical change and innovation in the agroindustrialsector in OECD countries. See for example OECD: The Knowledge-Based Economy, Paris,OECD/GD, 1996.


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generation and dissemination, facilitated by the ICT revolution that makes networking easier andmore effective; (d) the institutional diversification that is taking place in ARD and the need todevelop an integrated approach among the different institutions linked to agricultural education,research and extension; and (e) diminishing research budgets based on public funds, whileconfronted with expanding research agendas and increasing research costs.

One of the main challenges we confront in order to respond to this situation is that ofdeveloping a new framework for mobilizing the global scientific community in agriculturalresearch around the objectives of food security, poverty eradication, and sustainabledevelopment. This is the objective of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) thatwas formally established in October of 1996, and that is presently in the process ofimplementation. The GFAR is a new dynamic initiative aiming to promote a Global System forAgricultural Research based on cost-effective partnerships and strategic alliances among the keyplayers involved in agricultural research. At the heart of the GFAR are three fundamental beliefs:first, a science-based vision of the future based on the appreciation of the role that knowledgeplays in contemporary societies; secondly, the conviction that knowledge generation andutilization is increasingly based on transnational research systems and networks (importance ofnetworking and of the development of knowledge systems analyzed in the previous section);thirdly, the awareness that the new areas of science, such as biotechnology and information andcommunication technology (ICT) are generating new opportunities for the developing countries,but at the same time they can lead to increasing inequities between and within countries, based ontheir capacity to access and use these new technologies.

There are seven major categories of stakeholders or partners in agricultural research thatconstitute the components or the main actors of the GFAR: (a) National Agricultural ResearchSystems (NARS) of developing countries, (b) Advanced Research Institutes (ARIs) of developedcountries, (c) International Research Centres (IARCs) of the CGIAR, (d) NGOs (in bothdeveloped and developing countries), (e) the private sector, (f) Farmers' (or Producers')Organizations, and (g) Donors. The NARS have organized themselves in Regional/Sub-regionalFora in order to facilitate regional/sub-regional cooperation.

The objective of this paper is not to describe this initiative in detail, but it is important tohighlight the three main activities that the Global Forum is presently carrying out, that are closelyrelated to the issues analyzed in this paper:

a) Formulation of a Global Shared Vision and of a strategic global agenda that may reflectthe common interests of the various stakeholders of ARD.

b) Promote innovative research partnerships based on the comparative advantages of eachstakeholder.

c) Build an enabling framework for agricultural research information for development, as afirst step towards the emergence of a Global Knowledge System in ARD.

5.3.1 Development of a Global Shared Vision

One of the first tasks of the Global Forum has been to embark upon the formulation of a"Global Shared Vision (GSV) 2025" that can mobilize the global community of agriculturalresearch for development (ARD) around a common set of shared perceptions and objectives, aswell as a Vision of the future, and of the role both agriculture and ARD play in constructing thatfuture. As such, the objective of the GSV is to provide a sense of purpose to our efforts, a senseof urgency for action, and a common framework that may orient that action. The GSV is being


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developed through a very intensive consultation and discussion process that involves allstakeholders of ARD. A first draft of the GSV is available, and an Issues Paper is being preparedanalyzing recent trends and proposing a new approach to agricultural research, in order to makefeasible the objectives of poverty eradication, food security and sustainable development.

The emerging shared vision proposes the need to evolve from the present patterncharacterized by an Industrial Agriculture, based on abundant resources, high industrial inputs,cheap energy-inputs, and dependency of primary production from the processing/marketing phasesof agroindustrial production, to a Knowledge Agriculture, that is characterized by intensive use ofknowledge inputs, optimal use of available resources, higher energy efficiency, commoditychains based on knowledge systems or innovation networks where the farmer (primary production)interacts as equal with the processing/marketing phase, and an improved capacity of attainingequity and sustainability objectives, besides economic ones (productivity and competitiveness).18

This evolution is similar to the one G. Dosi describes for the industrial sector in terms of a changein “techno-economic paradigm”: “(Today’s) change of paradigm may be seen as a shift from atechnology based on cheap inputs of energy to one predominantly based on cheap inputs ofinformation derived from advances in microelectronic and telecommunication technology”.19

The development of this global shared vision is still an ongoing process that is beingdeveloped through the active participation of all stakeholders that constitute the Global Forum. Anactive discussion is taking place in terms of what are the policies that are required to supportagricultural knowledge and innovation systems that can serve as the basis of the KnowledgeAgriculture that is envisaged for the future.

5.3.2 Promotion of Innovative Research Partnerships

The second major activity of GFAR is that of promoting innovative research partnerships.Innovative research partnerships are aimed at developing interactive learning processes throughthe interaction between researchers, extensionists, farmers and other development agents. As wasseen in the case of PanelaNet in section 4.2.3 above, these partnerships promote networkingamong the key actors related to research, training, extension, information dissemination,innovation at the farm-level, and back to research for further improvement, and/or for looking fornew technological options or new products. Development of a networking capacity among theinterested stakeholders was identified as an important skill to be developed, through informationand knowledge sharing, through farmer participation and involvement, and through thedevelopment of shared perceptions among the stakeholders of the opportunities and challengesthey face, and of the value of collaboration in order to respond to them successfully.

A second important characteristic of innovative research partnerships is that their objectiveis not merely to provide a specific know-how, or technological product, but rather to develop aresearch and development capacity through a learning process. The objective is to empowerpeople through knowledge. A third important characteristic of these innovative partnerships is that

18 On this point see GFAR: A Global Shared Vision; Rome, FAO/NARS Secretariat, FirstDraft, July 1999. The Issues Paper that is being developed along with the Shared VisionStatement places the emphasis on the emergence of a new approach to agricultural research,based on the concept of a Knowledge-intensive Agriculture.

19 G. Dosi, R. Nelson, G. Silverberg and L. Soete (eds.): Technical Change and EconomicTheory, London, Pinter Publishers, 1988.


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they involve multi-stakeholder networking, bringing together researchers, extensionists andfarmers. Thus they seek to develop new strategic partnerships between the public and the privatesectors.

A fourth important characteristic is that they take an integrated commodity-chainapproach that goes from research to sustainable primary production (which includes NRM andoptimal resource utilization), and from there to post-harvest conservation and distribution, tosecondary processing, and to final marketing and consumption. In developing such a commoditychain, special attention should be given to the development of an agroindustrial knowledge andinnovation system where the primary producer is not totally dependent on the processing andmarketing phases of the chain, which often happens in the Industrial Agriculture approach. Here amore balanced and participatory chain will be promoted, with a more clearer rural developmentdimension integrated into it. In the example of panela production given above this balance wasachieved. But in this case it is easier to do so because this is typically a commodity chain linked tosmall rural enterprises that are generated by it. The challenge is to scale-up this approach tocommodity chains that are characterized by larger industrial processing firms.

Within the context of the Global Forum, an interesting proposal is emerging from theEuropean Forum on Agricultural Research for Development (ARD), aimed at promoting andfacilitating the organization of global and regional research partnerships or networks on keytopics/crops of interest to several stakeholders of ARD, based on the concept of commodity chainsand of networking in major crops. These Global and Regional Programmes or Networks, thatcomplement what the CGIAR does through its international centres, could provide the generalframework for global cooperation in this sector. These programmes could become the venue forjoint efforts among the various stakeholders of ARD, including NARS, ARIs, the private sector,IARCS and NGOs. Innovative funding mechanisms would have to be devised for them, based onboth cost-sharing schemes and on financial contributions by interested stakeholders and donors.The European Forum and the European Initiative on Agricultural Research for Development(EIARD), working in close coordination with the other Regional/Sub-regional Fora that theNARS have established, could play a very important role in this process.

5.3.3 Enable the Emergence of a Global Knowledge System in ARD

The third major activity, which is that of developing an enabling framework for theemergence of a Global Knowledge System in ARD, is closely linked to the issues that werediscussed in section 4 of this paper.20 Developing countries can take advantage of the knowledgethat is being generated by agricultural research worldwide if they develop the skills and the toolsthat allow them to search for this information, and to select and adapt what is relevant to them,converting information into useful knowledge that they can utilize. A key instrument forfacilitating this process is that of the development of Agricultural Information Systems, asanalyzed in section 4.2.1 above. There are different types of information systems, that, in termsof their scope, basically fall into one of three categories: (1) local, corporate (institutional) and/orcommunity–level information systems or services; (2) National/Regional Agricultural InformationSystems (NAIS/RAIS); and (3) international databases and/or global networks with informationfacilities. With the rapid expansion of the Internet and of web publishing, any of the above can

20 For more information on this third component of GFAR activities, see GFAR: InformationInitiatives in Agricultural Research: Follow-up to the Rome Consultation Meeting; Rome,FAO/NARS Secretariat, June 25, 1999.


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become web-based information systems that provide on-line access to the specific document that isrequested, if the document is available on the web.

The Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) is developing an initiative aimed atstrengthening the second category mentioned above: that of the National and RegionalAgricultural Information Systems (NAIS/RAIS), given the key role they play in facilitating theinteraction with the end-user. They are closer to local development needs than the globalinformation facilities. A second important objective of GFAR is that of strengthening theinteraction between the three levels mentioned in the previous paragraph, in order to effectivelyoperationalize the concept of decentralized databases located near the end-users. Among theRegional Agricultural Information Systems (RAIS), EIARD InfoSys is playing a pioneering rolein organizing and structuring a Regional Information Space, by pooling the European informationresources on agricultural research for development (ARD), through the concept of a decentralizedmeta-database that allows centralized on-line access to those resources through the web (see theirweb page at www.dainet.de/eiard/infosys). It should be pointed out that both WAICENT andInfoSys have evolved into web-based information systems. Similar regional information systemsare being established in the various regions of the developing world, in Sub-Sahara Africa, inWest Asia/North Africa, in Asia/Pacific and in Latin America and the Caribbean. In Sub-SaharaAfrica this process is being co-sponsored with CTA. If the National and Regional InformationSystems are not strengthened, it will be very difficult for isolated or remote end-users to haveaccess to the global information facilities that international centres and international organizationshave established. The latter would end-up being used by the more advanced researchers, and bysome policy-makers, but with very little effective impact at the grassroots level. The capacity toaccess and use these information resources, even through the Internet, is clearly increasedthrough the strengthening of this intermediate level.

Besides strengthening the National/Regional Agricultural Information Systems, there aretwo other major topics that will determine the capacity of developing countries to be able to takeadvantage of the technological revolution that is taking place in ICT. One of them refers to beingable to understand and use the various applications of ICTs in agricultural and rural development.This is summarized in Figure 1 in this paper and in the discussion of the main applications insection 4. Through the Observatory function of EGFAR, the Global Forum will be permanentlymonitoring the emergence of new ICT applications, and their potential interest for developingcountries (for NARS). These applications refer to such aspects as new software that increases theeffectiveness and efficiency of research, remote sensors that facilitate the monitoring ofenvironmental degradation, Geographical Information Systems that are instrumental for regionaldevelopment efforts and for mapping development challenges such as poverty, and interactivemultimedia and distance education technology that can increase enormously the effectiveness ofextension services (see Figure 1).

The other major topic is that of facilitating access to Internet and the web by developingcountries. This is specially important given the general trend that is already observable forinformation systems to be increasingly web-based. Furthermore, the web is not only aninstrument to access vast amounts of information and knowledge. As pointed out in section 4.1.2,Internet is a multipurpose tool that enables people to learn from one another and to work together.Thus Internet is a key tool for networking and for the development of interactive learningprocesses.

The limited access to the web in the rural sectors of developing countries continues to be avery significant limiting factor, specially in the least developed regions. Nevertheless, there arethree factors why these technologies will play an increasingly important role in agricultural andrural development efforts in the near future. One is the rapid expansion of access to the World

http://www.dainet.de/eiard/infosys


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Wide Web that is presently taking place that will increasingly include rural areas. The accesscapacity in Sub-Sahara Africa, for example, is expected to significantly increase through suchtelecommunication investment projects as the AfricaOne Project, that is expected to be completedby the year 2002, which will put an optical fibber cable around the entire African continent.Cable networks are also doing significant advances in several developing countries. In thesomewhat longer term, new technologies that already exist but are costly at the present time, canradically change the picture when they become less costly. An example of such technologies isthat of global satellite communication networks.

Secondly, there is a very important range of other Internet applications which requiremuch less bandwidth than web technology. These technologies are already being used in variouspilot projects, such as the case of the rural telecentres that have been established in severalcountries, that allow for knowledge dissemination and sharing of information and of experiencesamong stakeholders of ARD, as well as access to knowledge.21

Thirdly, information and communication technologies that combine educationaltechnology (distance education) with interactive multimedia and with CD-ROM technology, isproviding very powerful ICT tools that facilitate the types of applications and rural developmentefforts discussed in section 4 of this paper.

But despite the very important enabling role the new IC technologies play, the mainchallenges we confront are not the technological constraints, such as access to the web.Technology is only one dimension of the problem. The main challenges we confront are more ofan institutional, an organizational and a socio-cultural nature. The multiple interactions betweenresearch, training, extension and innovation in production that led to the emergence of a knowledgesystem in the case of panela (see case of PanelaNet in section 4.2.3 above), did not emerge onlyfrom the e-mail linkages and from the information services offered through the web page. Thecommunication technologies here played an important catalytic role, but they had to becomplemented by the existence of interested stakeholders, by the capacity of the research team toproduce good quality research and relevant technologies, by the networking capacity that thestakeholders developed through the sharing of knowledge and information, by farmerparticipation and involvement, and by the development of shared perceptions among thestakeholders of the opportunities and challenges they face and of the role of knowledge andtechnology in responding to them. Thus the main challenge we confront is that of how to facilitatethe emergence of these social, cultural and organizational structures, that allow people to use thepotential of knowledge to improve their lives. This is when information systems becomeknowledge systems.

21 For an interesting analysos of some of the available technologies see Rutger J. Engelhard:Inter-Networking for National Agricultural Information Systems in ACP Countries: Making theInternet Work; Wageningen, CTA, August 1999.

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