ict, networking and knowledge systems in agricultural … networking and knowledge systems in...

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ICT, Networking and Knowledge Systems inAgricultural and Rural Development

Fernando ChaparroNARS Secretariat of GFAR

Paper presented in the Second Conference of theEuropean Federation for Information Technology inAgriculture, Food and the Environment (EFITA).Bonn, September 27-30, 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

ICT, Networking and Knowledge Systems in Agricultural and Rural Development______________________________________________________________

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Table of Contents

1. THE DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGE...................................................................................................1

2. INFORMATION, KNOWLEDGE AND DEVELOPMENT ................................................................2

3. ROLE OF ICT IN PROMOTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF KNOWLEDGE SOCIETIES............3

4. MAJOR APPLICATIONS OF ICT TO AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT ..........54.1 SECTORS OF APPLICATION OF ICT IN AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT ..............................6

4.1.1 Impact of ICT on Research and Extension .................................................................................64.1.2 Impact of ICT on Rural Development and Community Action...................................................7

4.2 NATURE OF THE SERVICE OFFERED BY THE ICT APPLICATION .......................................................84.2.1 Agricultural Information Systems ............................................................................................94.2.2 Networking: Changing Patterns of Research Organization................................................104.2.3 An Interesting Case of Networking: PanelaNet ..................................................................14

5. COPING WITH THE CHALLENGES: A NEW PARADIGM FOR AGRICULTURALRESEARCH FOR DEVELOPMENT......................................................................................................16

6. KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS FOR AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT:A VISION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY ...............................................................................................20


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1. 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 andsustainable development. Scientific and technological progress is generating the knowledgeand the tools to make this possible. Nevertheless, the environmental and socio-economicdeterioration that is being confronted in many parts of the world poses an unprecedentedchallenge of mobilizing and applying the potential capacity scientific progress has generated,to the solution of these problems and to generate a sustainable and equitable developmentprocess. The capacity to respond successfully to this situation will have an impact on the wellbeing of all societies, making it a global issue. And the rapid process of deterioration, with itslong-term and pervasive impacts, gives it a sense of urgency that requires an effective andcollective response.

Despite the very important technological advances of this century, including those ofthe Green Revolution, the world is still faced with increasing poverty, both urban and ruralpoverty. 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 analyzedvarious contrasting trends that are presently taking place, and that will predominate during thecoming decades. On the one hand, the aggregate supply/demand picture for food as comparedto population 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.On the one hand, wealthy countries, together with a small number of developing countries(mainly from Asia), will enjoy low food prices and food surpluses, or affordable imports. Onthe other hand, poorer, slowly growing countries will face a growing problem of food securitythat will have to be solved through food imports.

Food surplus will be generated in developed countries, specially the U.S., and agrowing food deficit accompanied by growing food imports will predominate in developingcountries. The proportion of the malnourished population, specially in the case of vulnerablepopulations, will continue to increase. If instead of maintaining present rates of investment inagricultural research, national and international institutions further cut back their investments,the relatively favorable aggregate food situation could worsen, generating a global foodsecurity situation and worsening environmental problems and sustainability.

Desertification, deforestation and environmental deterioration represent a rapidlygrowing problem, even in countries that are well-endowed in natural resources. With thepopulation likely to increase by another 2.5 billion by the year 2020, and the problems ofincreasing natural resource degradation, agricultural research is faced with a major challenge.This demanding task is to improve farm family income to alleviate poverty, increase food


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production, provide employment opportunities for the resource poor and landless farmersto ensure household food security, while conserving the natural resources in a sustainablefashion.

2. Information, Knowledge and Development

The Green Revolution in Asia and elsewhere demonstrated dramatically how scienceand technology can contribute to the solution of food security and to the world’s capacity torespond to the growing population. The increments in yields in wheat, maiz and rice made avery significant contribution to assuring basic food supply despite the population explosion.This scientific revolution was accompanied by the emergence of the international agriculturalresearch system, the CGIAR, which played a central role in this process, and by theestablishment of many of the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) that presentlyexist. A significant increase in the investment in agricultural research took place at both theglobal and national levels. The Green Revolution led to a virtual transformation of the ruraleconomy, generating growth in productivity, in food availability and in income of farmers ofall size categories. But this took place three decades ago, and we are now facing newchallenges and new opportunities. In order to respond successfully to the challenges mentionedin the previous section, we are confronted with the need to revitalize agricultural research fordevelopment (ARD). But in order to do so, it will be necessary to develop a new researchparadigm that may build upon the emerging opportunities in the new environment, as well asthe comparative advantages of each the main stakeholders of agricultural research.

The more recent scientific revolution that is taking place at the turn of the century,based on the emergence of the new areas of science, namely in molecular biology(biotechnology), in agroecology and sustainable agricultural production, and in informationand communication technology, is leading to the growing importance of knowledge in presentday agriculture and natural resource management. Knowledge has become the most importantfactor of production, and it plays a critical role in our capacity to respond to the challenges offood security, poverty eradication and sustainable development analyzed in the previoussection.

The recent World Development Report of the World Bank concentrates on this topic:Knowledge for Development. The main thesis of the report is that, given the central role ofknowledge in economic growth and sustainable development, it is important to understandhow people and societies acquire and use knowledge, and why they sometimes fail to do so, asa key instrument for the improvement of livelihoods, specially in resource-scarceenvironments.

In his now classical research on economic growth, Robert M. Solow tried to quantifythe proportion 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 TotalFactor Productivity, represented as much as 70% of economic growth. Three main factorsdetermine this residual factor: education (human resources), institutions and knowledge.Knowledge includes technology, but also goes beyond it. It includes the capacity to generateknowledge, as well as the capacity to adapt it to local circumstances, to discuss and assimilateit among stakeholders (i.e. farmers), blending it with local knowledge and wisdom. The


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process of social appropriation of knowledge plays a role as important as the generation of thisknowledge.1

Of these three factors, knowledge is the most pervasive and fundamental one.Through education one transfers knowledge as well as knowledge-related skills (the capacityto understand and to generate knowledge). The growing interest on institutions and theirefficiency and effectiveness as a facilitating or limiting factor of development (institutionaleconomics), has clearly emphasized the importance of developing learning organizations. Thelatter are based on an increased capacity for knowledge management that may empower peopleand organizations, as a key instrument for developing in them a capacity to adapt to changingenvironments and circumstances, and to respond successfully to the emerging opportunitiesand challenges that characterize the globalized world of this turn of century.

Looking at recent experiences of developing countries, the capacity to generate andeffectively use knowledge in development efforts is closely correlated with three basic factors.The first one is education and human resources development, which continues to be the mainlimiting factor in most developing countries. The second one is development and strengtheningof a knowledge generation capacity through research (R&D capacity), specially in the case ofagriculture and natural resource management where site-specific research is required to adapttechnology to local circumstances. The third one relates to the development of an innovationcapacity, that requires not only effective extension services, but also more end-user farmerinvolvement to assure a process of social appropriation of knowledge. This third factor canonly be achieved through a people-oriented development effort, that places the farmer and thelocal community at the centre, and that is based on participatory approaches that involves theend-user from the conception of each project or activity.

It is important to point out that in promoting innovation, which is the capacity to applyknowledge to the improvement of production or of a social service, the knowledge can comefrom anywhere. It can be transferred from abroad or it can be produced locally. But even inthe first case, knowledge has to be adapted to local circumstances and appropriated by the end-user, before it can be effectively used.

3. Role of ICT in Promoting the Development of Knowledge Societies

Information and communication technologies have been with us for many years, andthey have played an important role in promoting agricultural and rural development during thelast several decades. The role of T.V. and radio in rural education and extension services hasbeen well documented in many developing countries. These technologies will continue to playa critical role in the developing world, along with the new information and communicationtechnologies. But what characterizes the new ICT revolution is the convergence of threepreviously differentiated technological sectors, whose convergence has generated a qualitativedifference in the way we can generate, disseminate and transfer knowledge, and thus on itscapacity to contribute to development. These technological sectors are:

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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• 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 andmanagement skills, and decreasing communication costs, are making instant connectivity andmuch quicker information 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 whomhe/she can interact in real time, creating a new virtual community of researchers that isdifferent from the traditional network of contacts and of researchers (peers) working in asimilar field. Some interesting examples of these virtual communities of research are startingto appear, even in developing countries, specially in the case of regional research networksthat are evolving towards electronic networks, with the capacity for interaction among itsmembers in real time. One of the main obstacles we are facing is that of a cultural change thathas to take place among researchers. It is not immediately obvious to everyone that behind acomputer with Internet access there are potential new ways of organizing his/her researchefforts. The perception of what is possible, and the learning of how to develop and implementthese new potentialities, requires a change of attitude, a change of mindset. It is not only amatter of limited access to Internet, which is a constraint that with time can change.

Outside the research world, there is an equally important impact that can be generatedin the wider community. A person with hardly any training, except basic literacy andkeyboard skills, can retrieve and manipulate data from various sources, easily and cheaply.And the person can interact with extensionists, with community leaders or with co-workers inother places that are facing similar problems. This is opening up the possibility of dynamic andproactive interaction and knowledge flows among stakeholders, community leaders and“practitioners” of development, with the capacity to empower them through learning processesbased on these knowledge flows and on the exchange of information on what works and whatdoesn’t, and on how best to do things.

Obviously for the above to happen the person has to have access to a computer and toInternet, and this facility is quite often absent, or is very limited, in the rural areas of thedeveloping world where the target population we want to reach is located. This limitation canbe partly solved through the utilization of ICT technologies and Internet applications that canbe used even when the World Wide Web is not accessible. There is an increasing number ofapplications that do not require on-line access to be operational and effective (i.e. CD-ROMtechnology and other portable technologies that are presently available). Moreover, the accessto Internet is starting to increase, even in remote areas of developing countries.

This leads to very basic questions with respect to the implications of the newtechnologies. If it were possible to solve the problem of access to computer facilities and to theInternet, would the new information and communication technologies have the capacity tosignificantly empower people and facilitate development? Does the new technology have thecapacity to facilitate leapfrogging for developing countries? Are we in front of a majortechnological revolution that can significantly influence the development capacity of anysociety? Can this Knowledge Society develop the tools to harness science for development,


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and to facilitate not only knowledge dissemination and technology transfer (extension services),but also knowledge generation through learning networks? Under what conditions can ICTsbecome more effective development tools? Or will the new technologies, on the contrary,lead to increasing differences and inequalities between the haves and the have-nots in terms oftheir capacity to access and use knowledge? What are the development implications of thevarious ICT-applications that are being generated continuously in the very dynamictechnological environment that characterizes this technological sector? Is the vision of aKnowledge Society that empowers people through knowledge a realistic one? Under whatconditions and with what requirements? These questions are not easy to answer, given the factthat most of these technologies are fairly recent, and the fact that accessibility to them is stilllimited. In the next section we will present a quick overview of the multiplicity of fields inwhich ICT applications are being developed with potential impacts for agricultural and ruraldevelopment.

4. Major Applications of ICT to Agricultural and Rural Development

Given the fact that ICTs are a generic technology, their applications to agriculture andto rural 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 transformationwith the spectacular development of the Internet, and the possibility of evolving towards web-based information systems, even in developing countries. But beyond databases andinformation systems, the applications of ICT to agricultural and rural development areappearing everywhere. They are profoundly transforming extension services through the use ofmultimedia technology and through the use of long distance education technology, as well asthrough the possibility of developing innovative approaches based on interactive knowledgedevelopment processes that involve researchers, extensionists and farmers. They are having aclear impact on our capacity to monitor the environmental impact of agriculture and thedegradation of natural resources through remote sensor data (soil erosion, deforestation,monitoring of fish stocks). A specific case of the latter is that of the set of technologies relatedto precision agriculture, with the impact this may have on both comparative advantages(production costs) and on the sustainability of agricultural production (facilitating thedevelopment of a “cleaner agriculture”). Geographical Information Systems are opening newapproaches to regional planning and to the management of natural resources. Instantconnectivity and electronic networks have the potential for changing the way we do research,with profound impacts on the organization of research (at both the national and internationallevels) and on the need to re-think the interaction between research, education and extension.

Since this is potentially a very extensive field, ICT applications to agricultural andrural development can be analyzed from three different perspectives or points of view:

a) The agricultural and/or rural development activity they influence.b) The nature of the service provided by the ICT.c) The technological and operational components that constitute a given ICT

application, and the requirements this generates in terms of human resources(training), infrastructural requirements, and others.

In this paper we will concentrate on the first two dimensions. By interrelating andcrossing these two dimensions an analytical matrix will be developed that helps to identify the


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most relevant ICT applications, and the functions they play in development. This matrix ispresented 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 the purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of ICT applications and theirimpact on development, not a detailed review of each one, we will not analyze each ICTapplication in depth. Although the analytical matrix that is presented in Figure No. 1 covers allfive areas, in this section we will pay special attention to the first and the fifth areas of theabove list, since they are of particular importance to the field of agricultural research fordevelopment (ARD). In the next section (3.2) we will make a quick reference to some of theICT applications that are emerging in all of them, in discussing the analytical matrix thatinterrelates services offered by ICTs and areas of application of those services.

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 agriculturalinformation systems, which is having a profound impact on how research results arecommunicated and disseminated. With the development of web-based information systems thepossibility of accessing databases and information on-line has increased dramatically, with theconcomitant problems that is generating from the point of view of the confidentiality of theinformation and of the economics of information management (economic value ofinformation). The rapid expansion of web publishing is dramatically changing the way peopleaccess information, and is leading to the development of metadatabases, based on virtuallibraries that provide direct access to the publication, wherever it is located, as long as thepublication is accessible through the web. We will come back to this issue in the next section,at looking at the services being provided by ICT applications. Secondly, the very significantadvances that are being made in software applications related to agricultural researchtechniques, coupled with advances in other areas of science, such as molecular biology, isaccelerating the research process enormously and making it much more efficient. This is oneof the areas in which NARS can seriously fall behind, compared to IARCs, to ARIs andobviously to the private sector. Access to research software is one of the important dimensionsthrough 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 anduniversities), the changing composition of the scientific fields related to agricultural research(increasing importance of molecular biology and ICT as compared with agronomy andveterinary), the changing nature of networking, the possibility of working jointly withresearchers in different institutional locations by interacting with them in real time, thepossibility of developing virtual communities of scholars working on the same topic butdispersed in space, and the increasing importance of knowledge systems and learning systems


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that are based on interactive knowledge development processes, and thus on a different concepton how knowledge is generated and managed in this new environment, is leading to profoundchanges in the research world. The social organization of science is changing, given changesthat are appearing in the organizational structure of research (how research is organized), aswell as changes in the relationship between research, education and extension. The traditionallinear relationship among these three functions is being replaced by dynamic interactiveprocesses, based on knowledge systems that combine these three key functions in different andinnovative ways. Given the importance of this change, it will be analyzed in a separate section(see section 5), where it will be argued that we are confronting the emergence of a newparadigm for agricultural research for development.

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 tothe need confronted by rural people and by grassroots agricultural organizations to establishvertical and horizontal channels of communication in order to increase their capacity togenerate and use knowledge, and thus increase the effectiveness of their development efforts.This is done through a variety of means. One of them is to facilitate the access by farmers andother end-users to the information resources that exist in the Internet or in other locations. Thesecond one is to empower these organizations by strengthening their capacity to enter indialogue and exchange information among themselves, and with researchers and policy-makers beyond rural communities, on how best to cope with their needs and improve theeffectiveness of their action. The third one relates to the integration of modern scientificknowledge with traditional knowledge or local wisdom, through a two-way flow ofinformation and knowledge that allows to capture live or uncodified knowledge at thegrassroots integrating it into the existing pool of knowledge available to other users. Severalpilot projects are being developed to address this issue, among which we should highlight theInterDev Project that is being developed by a group of NGOs and development-relatedorganizations.2

In this area of communication (ICT) and rural development there is an increasing bodyof experience being generated by a range of interesting projects that are presently being carriedout in Sub-Sahara Africa, in Latin America and the Caribbean, in Asia/Pacific, and in WestAsia/North Africa. A recent FAO study analysis some of the lessons that have been learnedfrom these experiences of integrating the Internet and other ICT applications in ruraldevelopment programmes.3 The Communication and Development Approach used in theseprojects is similar to the participatory research methodologies that have been developed inagricultural research for development. The above mentioned study summarizes the roleInternet plays in these rural development programmes in the following terms:

“The Internet is a multipurpose tool that, in its essence, enables people to learnfrom one another and work together. The results of Internet projects are not

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

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


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technical, but human and social. The Internet is essentially a tool for enhancinghuman relationships. Projects need to be driven, not by technical concerns, but byhuman knowledge, communication and social relationship concerns. Thus, theintended results of an Internet project ought to relate directly to improvements insocial relationships, improvements in knowledge sharing and knowledge access,and enhancement of communication among people and organizations. Suchproject results can happen through efforts to increase rural community resourcesand agricultural resources to achieve project outputs such as: locally developedlearning tools, interactive and collaborative extension information networks amongfarmer organizations, rural “folk schools” and “farmer field schools”, marketinformation networks, distance learning programmes, participatory research andaction networks, interactive and collaborative “expert systems” and decision-support networks, indigenous knowledge networks, training tools, and others.”4

On the basis of a comparative analysis of over 10 projects in developing countries indifferent regions of the world, this study identifies the main elements that characterize thesuccessful rural and agricultural Internet-based communication and information systems.

The pilot projects that were reviewed show very interesting results in the communitiesin which they operate. Nevertheless, the effective development impact of these pilot projectson the longer term and in the broader rural populations where they are located, depends verymuch on three critical questions: (a) the sustainability and continuity of these projects in thelonger term, that is a function of the degree of appropriation of the project by the localcommunity and the stakeholders; (b) the degree of integration of these projects with the NARSof which they form part, in order to link local research with extension and technology transferefforts; and (c) the capacity and strategic alliances that are required for scaling-up andextrapolating from successful but isolated cases, to processes of social change and innovationat the societal level. The challenge of scaling-up is the single most difficult problem that isencountered in these types of projects. In the next section we will mention some cases ofnetworking organized by the stakeholders themselves, without external assistance, that mayhave a greater capacity for sustainability and scaling-up, than those that depend excessively onexternal aid and international cooperation.

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 byeach ICT application. For developing countries, there are five key services, or functions, thatare very closely 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.

4 See Idem, pp. 20-21.


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d) Networking: ICTs can contribute greatly to relating people/institutions among themand facilitating the emergence of “Virtual Communities of Stakeholders” that generateand exchange information and knowledge among themselves. If well managed,networking is a first step in the direction of developing interactive knowledgedevelopment processes that may lead to learning networks.

e) Decision-support Systems (DSS): Tools and practices through which data andinformation provide relevant knowledge inputs for informed decision-making. Thesetools are playing an important role in converting information systems into knowledgesystems.

The main objective of these various ICT applications, from a development perspective,is that of Empowering People through Knowledge. By this we mean developing in people acapacity to achieve their development objectives and goals, through the generation,acquisition and use of knowledge. Another way of expressing it is that of developing in peopleand in communities a learning and innovation capacity, that increases the effectiveness oftheir efforts to solve problems and to improve their lives. This is one of the maincharacteristics of a Knowledge Society, which is one in which knowledge so much permeatesits social fibber that it empowers people and communities, increasing the effectiveness of theirdevelopment efforts through informed decision-making, and through their capacity to harnessscience and various forms of knowledge to achieve the objectives of poverty eradication, foodsecurity and sustainable development.5

If we relate these six functions or services that ICT applications provide, to the sectorsof application analyzed in the previous section, we obtain a matrix that helps to visualize therange that is covered by the various ICT applications to agricultural and rural development.This matrix is presented in Figure No. 1. We will not attempt an analysis of the different casesor applications that are described in the different cells of the matrix, since this would go farbeyond the scope of this paper. But some comments will be made on two of the functions thatconstitute the rows of the matrix: Agricultural Information Systems (access to information)and Networking.

4.2.1 Agricultural Information Systems

Access to information through Agricultural Information Systems (AIS) of differenttypes is the most widely spread service based on ICT applications. These information systemscan cover both scientific and technological information (generated by research), as well associo-economic data, market information and environment management information. Thereare different types of information systems, that, in terms of their scope, basically fall into oneof three categories: (1) local, corporate (institutional) and/or community–level informationsystems or services; (2) National/Regional Agricultural Information Systems (NAIS/RAIS);and (3) international databases and/or global networks with information facilities. With therapid expansion of the Internet and of web publishing, any of the above can become web-basedinformation systems that provide on-line access to the specific document that is requested, ifthe document is available on the web. The web-based information systems are leading to theconcept of virtual meta-databases that function as a gateway to the information resources thatare located in a given region.

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


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The purpose of Agricultural Information Systems (AIS) is that of facilitating centralaccess to information that is localized in decentralized databases. The AIS is thus constitutedby a system of interrelated databases and information services, that seek to respond to theinformation needs of the various types of end-users. WAICENT of FAO is one of the mainagricultural global information systems through which one can access different databases, bothof a documentary and a statistical (or data) nature. WAICENT has been playing a key role indeveloping a normative framework aimed at facilitating the flow of agricultural informationamong stakeholders and interested parties. At the global level, the importance of the databasesand the information resources of the CGIAR should be clearly highlighted, since theyconstitute one of the most important reservoirs of knowledge on agricultural and ruraldevelopment. CABI is playing an important role in facilitating the access to agriculturalinformation through the marketing of it.

The Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) is developing an initiative aimedat strengthening 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 above, in order to effectively operationalize theconcept of decentralized databases located near the end-users. Among the RegionalAgricultural Information Systems (RAIS), EIARD InfoSys is playing a pioneering role inorganizing and structuring a Regional Information Space, by pooling the European informationresources on agricultural research for development (ARD), through the concept of adecentralized meta-database that allows centralized on-line access to those resources throughthe web. It should be pointed out that both WAICENT and InfoSys have evolved into web-based information systems. Similar regional information systems are being established in thevarious regions of the developing world, in Sub-Sahara Africa, in West Asia/North Africa, inAsia/Pacific and in Latin America and the Caribbean. In Sub-Sahara Africa this process isbeing co-sponsored with CTA. If the National and Regional Information Systems are notstrengthened, it will be very difficult for isolated or remote end-users to have access to theglobal information facilities that international centres and international organizations haveestablished. 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 capacityto access and use these information resources, even through the Internet, is clearly increasedthrough the strengthening of this intermediate level.

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 agriculturalresearch is increasingly a global undertaking, that builds upon research efforts that are carriedout in different institutional locations (IARCs, NARS, ARIs, Universities, private firms),networks have played a very important role in bringing these efforts together and in facilitatingjoint 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 ofinformation and, in many cases, in collective efforts to achieve the shared objectives. Butnetworks vary immensely in terms of type of participants, nature of the activity that bringsthem together, degree of structuring of the network, degree of openness, and degree ofinstitutionalization, among other characteristics.


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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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Almost ten years ago, Donald Plucknett, Nigel Smith and Selcuk Ozgediz made avery thorough review of the experience of international agricultural research networks in theseventies and eighties6 In this book the authors developed a conceptual framework for studyingnetwork effectiveness, and they proposed a typology of networks, in which they identifiedfour types of research networks: (a) Information Exchange Networks, (b) Material ExchangeNetworks, (c) Scientific Consultation Networks, and (d) Collaborative Research Networks.They also looked at the evolution of networks and at their factors of success.

Ten years later we confront a very different environment. The institutional structurehas continued to diversify with stronger partners among the NARS and with new actors playingan increasingly important role, as it is the case with the private sector. The science-base foragricultural research has broaden, with the spectacular development of molecular biology andother areas of science, making it necessary to re-think the organization of research efforts. TheICT revolution is changing the context in which networks operate since immediate connectivityis now feasible. Furthermore, for effective development-impact one needs to develop closerlinks between the researcher, the extensionist and the farmer, leading to the need to developinnovative networks or knowledge systems based on interactive learning and knowledgedevelopment processes that take place through the interaction among these various actors.

This last consideration has led to a very important change in the approach tonetworking. This process is no longer limited to Research Networks, that basically linkresearchers that work in a given field. Although research networks will continue to play a veryimportant role, they are increasingly being complemented by development-oriented networksthat bring together researchers, extensionists, farmers and other development agents. These“mixed networks”, that cut across R&D, production and rural development are the mostdynamic and innovative ones. These mixed networks, when they develop a capacity forinteractive knowledge development among their members, are at the basis of what the WorldBank and FAO call "Agricultural and Rural Knowledge and Information Systems (ARKIS)”.Such systems or networks can play a key role in increasing the effectiveness of agriculturalR&D by strengthening its development impact, which is one of the main challenges thatNARS confront in many countries, in order to argue convincingly for an increased publicinvestment in agricultural research in a context of rapidly diminishing national budgets.

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. Thefact that their members are able to interact with each other in real time, while at the same timethey do so with a capacity to process a significant amount of information and with improvedknowledge management skills, is leading to important differences with the traditional networksthat we are acquainted 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), notbeing necessary to wait for the periodic meetings of the traditional networks that take placeevery 6 or 12 months.

6 See Donald L. Plucknett, Nigel J. H. Smith and Selcuk Ozgediz: Networking inInternational Agricultural Research; Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1990


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

c) Thirdly, the new advances in ICT are opening up the possibility of carrying out jointresearch efforts through cyberspace, given the possibility of interaction among researchersin real time, making it possible to pool the research capacities that are located in differentresearch institutions. The experience of APAN (Asia/Pacific Advanced Networking) inactually jointly carrying out research through cyberspace, has shown very interestingresults. The main limitation here is the high-speed connection that is required for this typeof network to operate.7 But, in the near future, this type of infrastructural limitation couldbe overcome.

d) Fourthly, the new technologies are making possible interactive knowledge development.This requires a two-way flow of communication in real time, a dialogue, that makes itpossible not only to exchange knowledge, but also to create new knowledge from theinteraction of different knowledge sources. The more innovative networks are moving inthis 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 thegrassroots level (local wisdom), and integrate it into the existing knowledge base on agiven topic, thus enriching it. This last characteristic is being utilized in some innovativeprojects that are aimed at seeking to integrate modern scientific knowledge with traditionalknowledge, thus generating a cumulative and empowering process through the dialogueand exchange of knowledge among “practitioners” of development. This is the case of theInterDev Project that 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 researchconsortia, joint research projects and licensing agreements. These new organizational formsdo not replace the research centres and institutes; they complement them. They rather open thepossibility of combining the resources the research institutions have in an agile and flexibleway through joint (sometimes multidisciplinary) research programmes. These networks alsoprovide the possibility of integrating a research centre with researchers that are working“upstream” in the universities in more basic research, or “downstream” with other researchers,extensionists, development practitioners and farmers in adaptive research, extension and ruralinnovation. These types of networks, some of which are mentioned in Figure No. 1, canbecome knowledge systems or innovation systems that are based on a different approach to theinteraction between agricultural education, research, extension and innovation.8

7 See Seishi Ninomiya: Agricultural Research, Cooperation and Agroinformatics over APAN;paper presented in the “Consultation Meeting on Information Initiatives in AgriculturalResearch: Enhancing Global Cooperation”, Rome, FAO/GFAR/World Bank, March 29-31, 1999.

8 It is important to point out that in the case of Sub-Sahara Africa a joint effort will bemade by CTA and the Global Forum (NARS Secretariat) in the area of promotingnetworking. The ideas being developed in GFAR are presented in this paper. For theideas that are orienting the activities of CTA see: Rutger J. Engelhard: Inter-Networking


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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, inthe near future, the tightly-nit network with a highly structured research agenda can evolvetowards a “virtual research centre” that may match the performance and the scientificproductivity of a centre of excellence. This is still not yet the case, but the question is, will itbe feasible, and under what circumstances. It is interesting to point out that the University ofPrinceton is presently carrying out a study aimed at the factors that influence, or limit,scientific productivity in cyberspace (electronic networks). The University of Sussex in the UKhas a similar programme aimed at the changing nature and role of research networks, speciallytaking into consideration the impact 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 maybe much more important in knowledge dissemination, and in generating interactive learningprocesses through the interaction between education (training), research, extension andinnovation at the farm or community level. Thus they may play an important role in theemergence of knowledge systems and innovation processes of this type, but not such animportant role in basic research, given the fact that they cannot yet compete with centres ofexcellence. This would point in the direction of a complementarity between the two forms ofresearch 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 studiesanalyze very similar changes that are taking place in other scientific areas.9 In section 5 we willanalyze some of the changes these trends are leading to.

4.2.3 An Interesting Case of Networking: PanelaNet10

There are several interesting cases of networking that are emerging from the effortssome NARS are doing in moving in the direction of the development-oriented networks thatbring together 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 producedfrom sugar-cane by very small producers (trapiches). This is a network that has emerged from

for National Agricultureal Systems in ACP Countries: Making the Internet Work;Wageningen, CTA, August 1999.

9 See for example the analysis in: Michael Gibbons, et al.: The New Production ofKnowledge: The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies; London,Sage Publications, 1994. On the emerging reality of the virtual research centre in thenatural sciences see James P. Vary and Douglas R. Fils: The Virtual Laboratory:Electronic Support for Cooperative Scientific Research; Paris, UNESCO/IITAP, January21, 1999. This paper goes into the analysis of economic, legal, organizational, social andpsychological, and ethical considerations of this emerging form of research organization.In agricultural research we are lagging behind other areas of science.

10 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 fromit.


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the efforts the researchers were carrying out with the farmers, in getting them to use theresearch results and in further improving the technology that had been developed. The networknow includes, among its members, researchers, extensionists, farmers, persons linked to themarketing of the product, and development agents that manage credit and other supportfacilities in 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 theproducers.

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 conservationand of 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 aweb page), since most members have to be reached by e-mail or even fax. In fact some ofthe producers out in the field that participate in the network have to be reached by word-of-mouth (no telecommunications available). But the core-group of the network has e-mailfacilities, 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 analyzeall the relevant aspects of interest to researchers and to producers and to facilitate their useby the end-users (the stakeholders). This refers to research reports, unpublished data fromresearch projects, market information, production statistics, information on the relevantagricultural machinery, information on sanitary issues, etc. They are planning toexperiment with new ways of disseminating this information (experiment withmultimedia).

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

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

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 isdone in CORPOICA and in the other participating organizations.


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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 ofresearchers on this topic that CORPOICA alone would never have been able to mobilize (norany of the other participating institutions). This Virtual Research Centre cuts across theconcrete research centres (and other types of organization) in which the network membersactually 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 asa knowledge system, has been the networking ability and the networking capacity that thestakeholders have developed through information and knowledge sharing, through thecommon perceptions and interests they have been able to develop on the basis of dialogue, andthe opportunities and advantages they have been able to identify for collaboration. But a keyaspect to emphasize is that this process of networking has involved a multi-stakeholdernetworking; not only networking among researchers. It is also interesting to point out thatthese multi-stakeholder knowledge systems are one of the key elements in facilitating theintegration of NARS (evolving from the NARIs to the NARS model), which is an issue thatwe will analyze in the next section, in which we will briefly mention some of the main effortsaimed at developing a new paradigm for agricultural research.

In terms of the information dimension, one of the important functions that are carriedout by the Regional Agricultural Information Systems (RAIS), that the Global Forum onAgricultural Research (the NARS Secretariat) is supporting in close cooperation with therespective Regional/Sub-regional Fora (see section 4.2.1 above), is precisely to identify theseregional information resources, or knowledge systems, of which PanelaNet is an example.Such regional information resources will be strengthened by the closer interaction they candevelop with global information facilities, with similar groups in other regions (inter-regionalexchange of experiences), and with other institutions of international ARD, through therespective RAIS. Here we see one of the important functions of the Regional AgriculturalInformation Systems in operation, and the value-added they can contribute to the strengtheningof a Global Knowledge System in ARD.

5. Coping with the Challenges: A New Paradigm for Agricultural Researchfor Development

In the previous two sections we have analyzed some of the deep changes that are takingplace in the context of agricultural research for development (ARD). The institutional structureof ARD has continued to diversify with stronger partners appearing among the NARS and withnew actors playing an increasingly important role, as it is the case with the private sector andwith NGOs, besides the traditional role played by IARCs and ARIs, as two of the main actorsin agricultural research for development. The integration of the university in the process ofknowledge generation and dissemination, and not only in human resources development, is aparticularly important aspect. The science-base for agricultural research has broaden, with thevery rapid development of molecular biology, agroecology and other science areas, making itnecessary to re-think the organization of research efforts. As we saw in the previous section,the ICT revolution is changing the context in which networks operate since immediateconnectivity is now feasible, opening-up the possibility for new types of research partnerships.


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Finally, for development impact to be achieved, research results have to feed into“Agricultural and Rural Knowledge and Information Systems” (ARKIS) constituted bynetworks 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.11 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.

The above considerations are leading to the need to develop a New Paradigm forAgricultural Research for Development. In this section we will briefly analyze threeongoing processes that reflect this process. They are: (a) The effort being carried out by theOECD countries of developing an integrated Agricultural Knowledge System (AKS), based onre-thinking the relationship and the interaction between agricultural education, research, andextension. (b) The process of institutional transformation of their research infrastructures thatis taking place in many developing countries, in evolving from a NARIs model to a NARSmodel for agricultural research (NARS integration). (c) Changes that are taking place ininternational agricultural research for development, seeking to strengthen research partnershipsthrough the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), as a way of providing aframework for the mobilization of the global agricultural research community around the topicsof food security, poverty eradication and sustainable development. This third initiative seeksto complement the CGIAR, by integrating the other 96% of global agricultural research to thedevelopment objectives that have been mentioned. We will briefly analyze each one.

The first case of institutional change refers to the effort presently being carried out bythe OECD countries of re-thinking the interaction between agricultural education, research andextension, in terms of the need to develop an integrated Agricultural Knowledge System (AKS).Traditionally, in both developed and developing countries these three functions have been inthe hands of different institutions, as well as ministries or government agencies, with littleinteraction among them. The programme that is being developed among the OECD countries isaimed at developing a capacity of addressing new and more complex tasks through co-ordinated actions by these three main functions: agricultural education, research and extension.Through the analysis of concrete case studies in different countries, it is expected that bestpractice will be identified, as well as the factors that intervene in facilitating joint effortsamong them and in determining the effectiveness of these strategic alliances. While therelationship between the components of the three main branches of an Agricultural KnowledgeSystem used to be largely characterized by a flow of knowledge being generated by research,and disseminated and transformed by education and extension, current concepts are leading toa very different approach: one that is based on interactive knowledge development viaknowledge networks which may operate on regional, national or transnational levels. Thisnew environment and approach is creating innovative relationships between the maincomponents of the AKS (education, research, extension), leading them to a much closercooperation, with many agents adopting more than one role.12

11 The World Bank and FAO are presently developing rural development programmes thatuse the ARKIS approach to the dissemination and utilization of knowledge, seeking toincrease the development impact of agricultural research and extension.

12 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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The second case we would like to mention is the deep process of institutionaltransformation of their research infrastructures that is taking place in developing countries.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 (thefarmer) into the research process, many National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) haverecently undergone, or are presently considering, significant processes of organizationalchange. This is particularly the case of countries in Sub-Sahara Africa and in Latin Americaand the Caribbean, but the trends are developing everywhere. One of the reasons for thisprocess of institutional reform is generated by the increasing criticism NARS are facing interms of the limited development impact they are achieving.

The main underlying trend is that of an evolution from an organizational model basedon the almost exclusive role of large public National Agricultural Research Institutes (NARIs),to one based on national research systems (NARS). As in the case of the OECD countries, thesystems approach seeks not only to integrate the new institutional actors (NGOs, universities,the private sector), but also to develop flexible inter-institutional arrangements through whichinteractive knowledge development can take place. This is leading to new innovative forms ofpartnerships between the public and the private sectors, and to new collaborative researchapproaches that bring together NARIs, universities and NGOs. Until very recently, theinteraction among these three types of organizations had been very weak. Another trend that isobservable in the changing structure of NARS is that of seeking to more closely relateeducation, research and extension, based on the development of knowledge systems thatintegrate these three functions in responding to specific user needs, production constraints, orsustainable development challenges. In this process, the multifunctional character ofagriculture and of land use, as well as the increasing importance of natural resourcemanagement, is also leading to a changing institutional picture and changing researchrequirements. The recent conference organized by FAO and the Netherlands on this topicanalyzed the implications of a multifunctional approach to agricultural and land utilizationactivities.13

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 contextual changes analyzed above are also leading to a changingrole for international centres (IARCs), which have been the main agent of global ARD sincethe Green Revolution. IARCs will continue to play a very important role, given the quality oftheir human resources, the importance of the germplasm collections they hold, and thestrategic role they play in generating international public goods that are required to respond tothe development challenges mentioned in section 1 of this paper. But the context ofinternational agricultural research is changing very rapidly. In some research areas, speciallyin those where proprietary technologies have quickly developed, the private sector is playingthe leading role. More than 80% of total global investment in biotechnology is being generatedby the private sector. The corporate research strategies of large private companies has changedsignificantly, shifting from strategies that rely basically on their in-house research capacity, toa very aggressive policy of outsourcing research to major Universities that are in the frontier ofscience in key strategic research areas, and to the development of research partnerships withother companies or research centres that can contribute to their corporate objectives. Several

13 Information on the papers presented at this conference and on the results that wereobtained can be found at the website of the Maastricht Conference on the MultifunctionalCharacter of Agriculture and Land (September 12-17, 1999): http://www.fao.org/mfcal .


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recent studies on innovation in developed countries, as well as a recent report by the CGIARPrivate Sector Committee, highlight the increasing importance of innovation and learningnetworks as a major source of technical change in the contemporary world.14

Several factors are strongly encouraging the various stakeholders of ARD to seek suchpartnerships and cooperation. Among them, the following can be mentioned: (a) themagnitude of the development challenges that are being faced in terms of poverty, foodsecurity and sustainable development; (b) the increasing complexity of research issues and therapid rate of scientific and technological progress, that makes it increasingly difficult for anyone stakeholder to cope with these requirements; (c) the increasing importance of networks inboth knowledge generation and dissemination, facilitated by the ICT revolution that makesnetworking easier and more effective; (d) the institutional diversification that is taking place inARD and the need to develop an integrated approach among the different institutions linked toagricultural education, research and extension; and (e) diminishing research budgets based onpublic funds, while confronted 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)that was 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 thekey players involved in agricultural research. At the heart of the GFAR are three fundamentalbeliefs: first, a science-based vision of the future based on the appreciation of the role thatknowledge plays in contemporary societies; secondly, the conviction that knowledgegeneration and utilization is increasingly based on transnational research systems and networks(importance of networking and of the development of knowledge systems analyzed in theprevious section); thirdly, the awareness that the new areas of science, such as biotechnologyand information and communication technology (ICT) are generating new opportunities for thedeveloping countries, but at the same time they can lead to increasing inequities between andwithin countries, based on their capacity to access and use these new technologies.

The objective of this paper is not to describe this initiative as such, but it is importantto highlight the three main activities that the Global Forum is presently carrying out, that areclosely related 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.

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

One of the first tasks of the Global Forum has been to embark upon the formulation ofa "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 constructingthat future. As such, the objective of the GSV is to provide a sense of purpose to our efforts, asense of urgency for action, and a common framework that may orient that action. The GSV isbeing 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 beingprepared analyzing recent trends in agricultural research and proposing a new approach toagricultural research, in order to make feasible the objectives of poverty eradication, foodsecurity and sustainable development. The suggested approach is based on a knowledge-intensive agriculture, that replaces an input-intensive and energy inefficient one.15

The second major activity of GFAR is that of promoting innovative researchpartnerships. At this point we will only make reference to one of the proposals that is presentlybeing discussed in the context of GFAR. It is a proposal that is emerging from the EuropeanForum on Agricultural Research for Development (ARD), aimed at promoting and facilitatingthe organization of global and regional research partnerships or networks on key topics/crops ofinterest to several stakeholders of ARD, based on the concept of commodity chains and ofnetworking 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 venuefor joint efforts among the various stakeholders of ARD, including NARS, ARIs, the privatesector, IARCS and NGOs. Innovative funding mechanisms would have to be devised forthem, based on both cost-sharing schemes and on financial contributions by interestedstakeholders and donors.

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.16

6. Knowledge Systems for Agricultural and Rural Development: A Vision forthe 21st Century

Among the various information and communication technologies the utilization ofInternet as an enabling technology for rural development programmes has attracted

15 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 agriculturalresearch, based on the concept of a Knowledge-intensive Agriculture.

16 For more information on this third component of GFAR activities, see GFAR:Information Initiatives in Agricultural Research: Follow-up to the Rome ConsultationMeeting; Rome, FAO/NARS Secretariat, June 25, 1999.


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considerable attention. The clear potential of this technology for facilitating interaction amongpeople and for enabling community action, while at the same time being able to tap differentinformation and knowledge sources, has been clearly demonstrated through various pilotprojects that are taking place in different developing countries, such as the experience of theSwaminathan Foundation in India, and various pilot telecentre projects around the world.These projects are trying out different approaches and strategies, including how to cope withthe issue of the sustainability of such endeavors.

The limited access to the web in the rural sectors of developing countries continues tobe a very significant limiting factor, specially in the least developed regions. Nevertheless,there are three factors why these technologies will play an increasingly important role inagricultural and rural development efforts in the near future. One is the rapid expansion ofaccess to the World Wide Web that is presently taking place that will increasingly include ruralareas. The access capacity in Sub-Sahara Africa, for example, is expected to significantlyincrease through such telecommunication investment projects as the AfricaOne Project, that isexpected to be completed by the year 2002, which will put an optical fibber cable around theentire African continent. Cable networks are also doing significant advances in severaldeveloping countries. In the somewhat longer term, new technologies that already exist but arecostly at the present time, can radically change the picture when they become less costly. Anexample of such technologies is that 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 invarious pilot projects, such as the case of the rural telecentres mentioned above, that allow forknowledge dissemination and sharing of information and of experiences among stakeholders ofARD, as well as access to knowledge.17

Thirdly, information and communication technologies that combine educationaltechnology (distance education) with interactive multimedia and with CD-ROM technology,is providing very powerful ICT tools that facilitate the types of applications and ruraldevelopment efforts 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 moreof an institutional, an organizational and a socio-cultural nature. The multiple interactionsbetween research, training, extension and innovation in production that led to the emergence ofa knowledge system in the case of panela (see case of PanelaNet in section 4.2.3 above), didnot emerge only from the e-mail linkages and from the information services offered through theweb page. The communication technologies here played an important catalytic role, but theyhad to be complemented by the existence of interested stakeholders, by the capacity of theresearch team to produce good quality research and relevant technologies, by the networkingcapacity that the stakeholders developed through the sharing of knowledge and information, byfarmer participation and involvement, and by the development of shared perceptions amongthe stakeholders of the opportunities and challenges they face and of the role of knowledge andtechnology in responding to them.

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

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