文章基本信息

标题：INSTITUTIONAL REFORM OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND EXTENSION IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
本地全文：下载
作者：Johannes Roseboom ; Matthew McMahon ; Indira Ekanayake 等
期刊名称：En Breve
出版年度：2006
卷号：2006
期号：may
出版社：World Bank Group
摘要：The Latin America and Caribbean region (LAC) has been undergoing an evolutionary process in its agricultural research and extension systems in recent years. This transformation of agricultural innovation systems has been explained metaphorically as following the nature of an ¡°intelligent living organism¡± that must learn and adapt to changes in its environment in order to be successful. What was once a linear process, driven by a top-down action plan where research and advisory services were dominated by government agencies, is slowly being transformed into a network of diverse stakeholders influencing the process of agricultural innovation. Traditionally, the unidirectional process of research and extension has been initiated by an agricultural agenda defined by the central government, for which the national agricultural research institutes (INIA for its Spanish acronym) were tasked with identifying strategies to address these priorities. The research was then implemented and finally its results disseminated to the farmers for adoption. The current incarnation of agricultural innovation systems have been typified by the engagement of a wider set of actors, including universities, farmers, input suppliers and other private sector interests, who offer their unique insights to feed the process of innovation in a practical and demand-driven manner. As such, the concept of ¡°innovation¡± extends beyond the formal research and development (R&D) to more effectively incorporate learning through experience, which has proven more circular in nature, with the intention of more directly contributing to improved rural livelihoods. On the institutional side, these reforms have led to greater specialization, with policy formulation, financing and implementation being increasingly separated from one another.