The reasons for poor linkages between research and extension have been categorized into political, technical and organizational (Kaimowitz, Snyder and Engel, 1989).
Political
This refers specifically to institutional politics, and the different interest groups.
There is a lack of external or internal pressure on institutions and personnel to achieve high levels of performance. External pressure could come from national policy makers, foreign donors, farmers or the private sector. Except in exceptional circumstances, such as disease outbreaks, major crop shortfalls, etc., intervention by national policy-makers is generally minimal. Pressure from resource-poor farmers in developing countries is also negligible, mainly because of their inability to organize themselves. Since participation of the private sector is insignificant in resource-poor areas, the pressure exerted by resource-poor farmers on research and extension is also negligible. In the absence of effective external pressure, the institutions and personnel involved in research and extension tend to be motivated more by their own social and political needs than by the needs of resource-poor farmers. This results in extension personnel concentrating what they perceive to be their main activities, which are likely to make them less integrated with research, while researchers concentrate more on on-station research than on on-farm research. This tendency to perform only their 'main activities' leads to neglect of linkage activities.
Adequate resources are lacking to achieve the stated goals. In a resource-limited situation, linkage activities suffer most, as they have to compete with research and extension functions to obtain a share of the available resources, which tend to be allocated to 'main activities.' Since resources are inadequate, the linkage function will probably not be able to attract much funding, and hence be unable to attract and keep high-calibre personnel.
Technical
Technical reasons relate to specific types of activities and methodologies associated with technology development and delivery.
Lack of professionalism and de-centralization, coupled with less hierarchical management, are needed in order to be effective in less productive and more diverse environments. Research efforts in these environments have to be more widely dispersed and pose more complex technical problems, and hence require more location-specific diagnosis of problems and adaptation of technology. Well qualified personnel tend to leave such places soon.
Lack of the necessary infrastructure may force researchers and extension personnel to adopt alternative technologies which may not be appropriate for the region.
There is lack of flexibility in initiating the various links required for different types of technology. For example, the types of links required for already established technologies are different from the links needed for developing and delivering new technologies.
Organizational
Organizational reasons comprise those relating to structural problems, motivational and incentive problems, resource problems and communication problems (Kaimowitz, 1987).
Structural Problems
There are differences in orientation and work style, concerns related to competence, and level of contact between research and extension personnel. Researchers are more oriented towards the general scientific community, have a longer time horizon, and want to be absolutely sure about the recommendations; extension personnel focus more on their specific employer and use the best answer available at a given moment.
The responsibility of conducting adaptive research, communication of research results, or, feedback from users to researchers is not generally assigned to individuals. Extension workers would like researchers to produce more timely research findings, write recommendations in the local language (s) and make them available (Seegers and Kaimowitz, 1989).
A particular technology is often thrust upon a locality and extension workers are forced to promote it though it does not suit the local agro-ecological or socio-economic conditions. Failure of such technology costs extension workers the goodwill of farmers.
Linkage activities are often assigned to an inappropriate institution or department.
Excessive centralization of authority curtails flexibility, particularly important for linkage activities, while excessive de-centralization results in poor attention given to linkage activities.
There is often need for a high-level authority to ensure that institutions coordinate their activities and perform their responsibilities.
Institutional incompatibilities - such as research by commodity and extension by region; different clientele; or different time schedules for planning and budgeting - can seriously impede linkage development.
Motivational and incentive problems
Individuals may have little incentive to perform linkage activities, made obvious where researchers and extension agents avoid linkage activities such as adaptive field trials and preparation of written materials for extension agents (McDermott, 1987).
Rewards for journal publication may be higher than those for performing linkage activities.
Resource problems
Sufficient financial resources for linkage functions such as publications, testing of research results and training of extension workers are often lacking, while there may be sufficient human resources in the organization but they may not be available for linkage activities.
Communication problems
There may be wide differences in value systems, educational backgrounds and communication methods between research and extension workers. Extension workers perceive researchers as working in ivory towers (as they are considered professionals, with more academic qualifications and training and therefore given higher status) and producing technologies which are not useful at farm level (FAO, 1984; Samy, 1986). At the same time, researchers question extension workers' capability to understand research outcomes, to communicate properly with farmers (Quisumbing, 1984) and to provide valuable inputs (Seegers and Kaimowitz, 1989).
Infrastructure for communications may be weak or non-existent. A high turnover of staff makes it difficult to establish long-term relationships.
