3. STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES AND INNOVATIONS RELEVANT TO AKIS/RD IN THE CASE STUDIES

All ten countries studied have well established, functioning public sector agricultural research, education and extension systems. However, this fact does not tell how effectively or efficiently the systems are performing, or the extent to which different systems are being integrated as (sub)systems in the larger context of an integrated AKIS/RD. It does not elucidate how successfully these systems provide agricultural producers and other clients with the means to improve production and build competitive advantage.

The following overview of strengths and weaknesses in the ten country case studies is based on the national consultants’ findings. The strengths and weaknesses are evaluated in keeping with the 24 indicators that fall under the five main priority areas established in Section 2.

Policy environment

The national policy environment, which is largely set by government, provides the "space" in which the AKIS/RD evolves. A sound policy environment requires clear public policy in support of AKIS/RD programmes, public investment that is focused on the production of public goods, and attention to maximizing the economic returns on investments in knowledge and information services and in the rural sector in general. Three main challenges for policy determination are: 1) greater devolution of power and the empowerment of local people and their organizations; 2) creation of decentralized institutional structures that facilitate the implementation of core policies; and 3) investment in education and training to support income diversification and gender goals.

National strategy and plan for AKIS/RD development and operations

A formulated AKIS/RD policy is important, but with it must come commitment to the AKIS/RD vision and principles. All ten countries covered by the study have some sort of AKIS-related national policy or plan, but not all have developed a strategy for its implementation. Seven of the ten country case studies make reference (see Table 2) to a policy mandate or national plan for agricultural development, and refer to a national strategy or multiple nationwide programmes for the advancement of components central to the vision and principles put forward by FAO/World Bank (2000) to promote AKIS/RD. Lithuania’s policy orientation is dispersed - each ministry follows its own lead - but several new laws and plans promise a strong framework for rural development and AKIS/RD-related policy. Egypt, Pakistan, and Trinidad and Tobago, although they have national plans, still lack effective, efficient implementation of their mandate. For example, institutions in Trinidad and Tobago remain quite centralized, despite the country’s 1988 to 1990 policy for decentralization.

Chile, for example, does not appear to have an explicit AKIS/RD policy, but demonstrates a strong commitment to rural development that fosters AKIS/RD among its agricultural research, education and extension institutions, and a close partnership with the private sector. Its commitment to rural development is evident in a steady increase in its national and sectoral public allocation for productive growth and the development of social and physical infrastructure. Cuba’s Strategy Plan for Agricultural Extension (1998) envisions networks of research, extension, education and producers, puts emphasis on networking through mass media extension activities, and is devoted to developing an Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation System. In this case, national strategic planning appears to be an even more important strength than formal policy formulation.

Sector leadership is critical. Of note from the Malaysia case study is that in 1999 a new Minister of Agriculture with wide experience in the corporate sector was appointed to the Cabinet. Under his leadership, the Ministry of Agriculture’s policies changed for the better in terms of promoting agriculture as a vibrant sector worthy of larger investments and recognizing its potential to contribute to the economy. A new dynamism was injected into the ministry’s agencies, and revived concern was sparked for designing commercial projects, producing commodities on a large scale, planning implementation, and monitoring results and progress.

Targeting the public good

Targeting the public good is a promise embraced by the World Food Summit, whose goal is to reduce food insecurity by half by 2015.

When AKIS target public good issues, they support the World Food Conference of 1974, the World Food Summit of 1986 and its follow-up conferences, and the Millennium Development Goals.^[10] Although the majority of the world’s population will be living in urban areas by 2030, farming populations will not be much smaller than they are today. For the foreseeable future, dealing with poverty and hunger in much of the world means confronting the problems that small farmers and their families face in their daily struggle for survival (FAO/World Bank, 2001).

Malaysia’s Third National Agricultural Policy (for 1998 to 2010) has the primary aim of transforming agriculture into a modern, dynamic and competitive sector. It laid the foundation for viewing agriculture in terms of its potential contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) and adjustment of the trade imbalance, increased private sector participation, improved producer income, and enhanced innovation and technology capacity. By mid-2000, a new model for the agriculture industry in Malaysia had emerged, which focuses on producing high-quality agriculture and food products that are market- and technology-driven. While Malaysia’s AKIS institutions are not necessarily innovative with regard to all the AKIS/RD principles, they appear to function effectively, albeit they are dedicated primarily to commercial production. It could be questioned whether such a strategy is optimal for addressing the needs of the rural poor and the degradation of the environment.

Rural poverty is widespread in Lithuania. In 1999, the rural poor constituted 28 percent of the rural population (the equivalent figure in the cities was 7 percent, with an overall national average of 16 percent). There are more children in rural areas than in the cities, which means that the situation will not improve in the near future; in fact, poverty may affect a growing number of rural residents. The result is a kind of a viscous circle: poverty is widespread because of low investment in human resources, and investment is low because of poverty. To break this cycle, according to the national consultant, government must develop and implement long-term agricultural and rural development strategies, including the development of education, research and information systems.

Agriculture figures as one of the priority sectors in the Pakistan Government’s agenda for Economic Revival and Poverty Alleviation, even though the labour productivity and per hectare crop yields of Pakistan’s agriculture are among the lowest in the world. Government has promoted agriculture and rural development by encouraging its various institutions, organizations and individuals at all levels to undertake programmes and activities in agricultural research, extension and education and farmers’ empowerment in order to bring about a technological breakthrough in agriculture and enhance per unit productivity. The ultimate goals of these initiatives are food self-sufficiency (food security), increased agricultural exports, human development, environmental sustainability, improved quality of life for people in rural areas, and the development of alternative strategies for rural poverty alleviation. However, all stakeholders expressed uncertainty about the success of the programmes as foreseen in the 1998 to 2010 Education Policy. The national consultant recommends immediate action to make all the requisite inputs available and to provide quality technical/vocational education and training to agricultural producers, traders, technicians and technologists in areas linked with national development in order to increase productivity per head and reduce rural poverty.

In Uganda, the Plan for Modernization of Agriculture (PMA) incorporates a strategy to eradicate poverty through a multisectoral investment approach. The PMA has identified several intervention areas such as research and technology development, agricultural advisory services, rural finance, agroprocessing, agricultural education, natural resource management, and rural infrastructure. All these are relevant to the development of AKIS/RD. The PMA offers opportunities for better coordination and linkages, farmer empowerment and ownership mechanisms, decentralization, and pluralism in service delivery, all of which are pertinent to the management of AKIS/RD. Well received by donors and other stakeholders, the PMA is thus expected to benefit from a wide support base.

Attention to economic efficiency

The original Terms of Reference sent to the case study consultants requested information on the overall impact of and funding for AKIS/RD. These two issues depend largely on the system’s economic efficiency.

At this early stage, as might be expected, economic efficiency was conspicuous by its absence in most of the case studies. This lacuna deserves to be filled by economic study, as AKIS/RD become more of a reality in developing countries. The operative question is whether AKIS agencies and organizations give value for money in terms of the impact of AKIS/RD, i.e. changes in the behaviour and productivity of end-users that are in line with the jointly planned AKIS/RD goals.

Cameroon’s National Programme for Agricultural Extension and Research (PNVRA) appears to be generally satisfactory at all levels - institutional, programmatic and human resources. At the institutional level, formal collaboration has been established between research and extension (as a result of the Convention for Agreement between the Ministry of Scientific and Technical Research [MINREST] and the Ministry of Agriculture [MINAGRI] of 30 April 1996).

Chile has successfully employed a two-tiered agricultural institutional strategy (with one set of programmes for emerging agricultural producers and another for those at more basic levels) that emphasizes economic efficiency. This dual strategy seeks to promote a market-oriented rural economy and reduce poverty. Using this strategy, the government emphasized the role of the private sector as the principal motor for development, with government providing a support strategy, including investments in infrastructure, effective services and channels for commercialization, stakeholder empowerment, and security nets for vulnerable groups. In short, it recognized the importance of the private sector for promoting economic growth, and the concomitant need to raise the income levels and quality of life of rural people living below the poverty line. This strategy has resulted in Chile becoming one of Latin America’s leading agricultural economies.

Institutional structure for supporting innovation

Various institutional structures will need to support the goals of AKIS/RD. Where they do not already exist, AKIS/RD national oversight units might be established to coordinate, foster collaboration and ensure that the system’s impact and efficiency are evaluated as it develops.

Central- and branch-level supervision of AKIS/RD activities is required in order to monitor the commitment to supporting innovation. Human resource development is central to long-term development, and includes the upgrading of administrative leaders as well as staff. Decentralization - whether deconcentration to central government branch offices, devolution of authority to sub-government levels along with "fiscal federalism", or subsidiarity to community and local organizations - represents a critical factor in bringing about the increased involvement of personnel and stakeholders in the agricultural development process, thereby fostering AKIS/RD. For agricultural knowledge and information to reach end-users, the respective organizations involved must perform their functions effectively and efficiently, and there must be systems for M&E and impact assessment within and across institutions.

Existence of public sector AKIS/RD units

An AKIS/RD unit is an individual or organizational unit charged with proactively promoting the development of public and private sector knowledge and information institutions, and the linkages between them. In many ways, this is equivalent to developing a market for innovation services. In practice, such a unit may seek to improve the impact of an AKIS/RD agency or of the set of public sector AKIS/RD agencies. An AKIS/RD unit should have the authority to promote and enforce the policy mandate, and should be dedicated to creating and facilitating linkages among research, education and extension institutions, as well as with private sector entities, agricultural producers and their organizations. It should be the authority responsible for overseeing the development and results of AKIS/RD, and there should be a unit in each AKIS institution. The unit’s purpose is manifold: to review, examine and report on the efforts of AKIS institutional structures; to promote the conditions for expressing demand for agricultural innovation; to advance partnerships and networks among both public and private AKIS institutions; to oversee joint planning among AKIS institutions; and to assist with sources of financing for AKIS/RD.

Results-oriented management

Central to improving AKIS/RD performance is a move to focus on programme impacts and results for ultimate clients rather than on budgets, inputs and activities. Management systems must define their ultimate goals and work towards these. This requires accountability for performance and results at all levels of the organization, and has especially important implications for the deployment of resources through budgets and personnel management. It will also frequently require partnerships and recognition of the different comparative advantages of other institutions.

Cuba maintains central supervision, but this is moderate now that the country has considerably decentralized its agricultural institutions. Branch supervision is stronger because government is far more concerned with local development. Trinidad and Tobago has not developed AKIS/RD units. Although government and sub-government supervision exists, there is no widespread dissemination of innovations, and no discussion of the constraints or benefits that might be associated with innovation.

Attention to AKIS/RD human capacity building

Staff preparation and development are key to effective AKIS (sub)systems, and therefore AKIS/RD success.

Somewhat surprising in the case studies was the extent to which the countries studied have undertaken initiatives to build AKIS institutional resources through human resource development. One of the most important aspects of Cuba’s AKIS/RD is the attention it pays to this factor through constant updating of staff. In Cameroon’s PNVRA, numerous research and extension staff have been trained in methods of adaptive, as well as applied, research station-type agriculture.

In Morocco, training constitutes the most dynamic aspect of the Project to Support Agricultural Development (PSDA), and is directed at all stakeholders in agricultural development (supervising staff, technicians, farmers, rural women and professional organization members). Initial and on-the-job training of staff in charge of agricultural development has led to important qualitative changes in working methods. Special emphasis has been placed on training extension staff in order to update their knowledge level and improve their communication skills with farmers. Eight regional centres of agricultural in-service training have been created and equipped, and provide training for the sons and daughters of farmers, as well as the farmers themselves. In addition to this network of training centres, the National Centre of Extension Studies and Research and the Perfection Centre at Mehdia actively promote national training programmes. Agricultural extension services have also been improved by instituting precise tasks and sustained training for staff and farmers.

In Malaysia, AKIS operators felt that they needed both technology development and a better understanding of social concerns. Trinidad and Tobago suffers numerous AKIS constraints; among which are insufficient human resource development (especially career development and promotion), as well as poor staff deployment, and poor education opportunities.

Sound strategy for programme decentralization and subsidiarity

Decentralization and subsidiarity are important means of integrating agricultural producers into AKIS decision-making processes.

Several of the ten countries studied have introduced reforms to decentralize AKIS/RD operations to local government units or stakeholder groups. These initiatives tend to involve decentralization at the State level via subsidiarity, participatory approaches, institutional pluralism involving sundry private entities, and a trend towards demand-driven agenda setting.

Uganda’s PMA is based on decentralization to the municipal and farmer levels. Future programmes include plans to increase rural literacy and train agricultural and other stakeholders in managing the decentralization process. The idea is for farmers to be supported through municipal governments, with a view to contracting directly with the private sector for delivery of extension services. An important component in this scheme is that it will enable competent private sector extension providers to operate, something that did not happen before.

Cuba is a special case in that its previously centrally coordinated AKIS underwent an about-face after the economic shocks of the 1990s. Decision-making authority and implementation control are currently devolved to a range of participants. "In a sense, a decentralized, lightly coordinated extension system has evolved, one focused on increasing AKIS efficiency in support of food security" (Carrasco, Acker and Grieshop, 2003). Since 1990 and the changes to Cuba’s policies and practices, food security and the quality of life seem to have improved for Cubans. Deconcentration and decentralization are currently taking place within Cuban society, and this is significantly facilitating interactions among the agencies and people involved in agricultural and rural development programmes. One example is agricultural delegates’ (representatives, promoters and extensionists) newly instigated participation in Cuba’s Popular Council. Another example is the inter-institutional relations that exist at all levels and help to develop national, provincial, territorial and local policies. Local communities can enter the process and help to confront the challenges emerging from globalization.

Egypt’s AKIS institutions of research, education and extension have been slow to exploit the potential of economic liberalization and decentralization. Research and extension plans have not responded sufficiently to new market opportunities for added value, product diversification and increased input availability. Similarly, the social and economic sciences are still missing from the curricula of many agricultural training establishments. Hence, AKIS/RD institutions have not been sufficiently responsive in addressing the problems and opportunities facing farmers. A lack of systematic collaboration among researchers, educators, extension staff and farmers has limited the effectiveness and relevance of support services to the rural sector.

Existence of systems for M&E and impact assessment

Monitoring informs whether programmes are doing things in the right way; evaluation informs whether programmes are doing the right things.

M&E is an essential function for AKIS agencies, providing them with feedback to improve their performance and evidence that they are achieving the desired impacts. The fact that this function is weak in almost all AKIS institutions was confirmed in this study. The methodology and arrangements for undertaking M&E of the overall function of an AKIS/RD are particularly difficult and have not been explored beyond the monitoring of macroeconomic or sectoral indicators.

In Cuba, M&E is carried out by each organization separately, according to individual project activities. In each of Cuba’s inter-organizational cases cited, the objectives and their expected outcomes are clearly stated, and each organization involved provides its own expertise to achieve the overall project outcome. Thus, each case is evaluated according to the different elements involved, although there are different ways of measuring success. However, the report is unclear as to who measures the overall success of the different projects. The implication is that end-users ultimately determine whether the projects work or not. Evaluation appears to be an ongoing process in which, if something does not work the first time, modifications are made and new approaches are tried until the desired outcome is achieved.

In Cameroon, M&E systems operate throughout the PNVRA. In Malaysia, the M&E system depends on the Farmer Organization Authority (FOA), which elects a Board of Directors for every district every two years. This board operates as a mechanism to ensure farmer participation in the planning, implementation and monitoring of FOA programmes. In Uganda, although agricultural producers are currently encouraged to participate in most aspects of programme development, so far they have little involvement in M&E.

In Trinidad and Tobago, there is an absence of M&E and impact assessment. The National Marketing Development Company seems to be one of the few institutions that works closely with producers and has developed systems of M&E for its activities. As well as contracting with the private sector to combat the hibiscus mealy bug, marketing extension services appears to be one of the few strengths in the Trinidad and Tobago system.

Functional performance of AKIS entities

The effective performance of individual AKIS entities is a necessary step towards the effective functioning of the AKIS/RD.

Evidence of past success, and research, extension and education institutions with good reputations are indicators of the overall strength of subsystems and the potential for effective linkages. In short, does the AKIS entity have a good reputation, and is it having the required impact?

Lithuania appears to have a uniform and reasonably well-developed network of scientific, educational and consultative institutions. The AKIS institutions operate within the Agricultural Chamber, as do the self-governing farmers’ organizations.

In Egypt, despite the lack of state decentralization and subsidiarity to local communities, knowledge generation by the research agencies has led to productivity increases for most crops, an expanded cultivated area in the desert, and the conservation of natural resources through producing new varieties and technologies. Egypt’s extension system has also played an important role in disseminating technological packages through printed and audiovisual communications. Farmers use these technological packages, which are produced by the research system and transferred via extension, and generally provide feedback.

The Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) undertakes, aids, promotes and coordinates agricultural research, organizes high-level training, and acquires, disseminates and promotes the adoption of newly evolved agricultural technologies through its network of research and technology transfer institutes located throughout the country. PARC performs its mandated roles in collaboration with provincial institutions and organizations, in order to avoid duplication. For example, PARC carries out basic and strategic research, while the provincial research institutes deal with applied and adaptive research. The universities, however, are autonomous bodies and perform their educational and research roles independently with very little joint programming and few linkages to PARC and other private sector AKIS/RD operators.

Conditions for expressing demand for innovation

A shift from bureaucratic, top-down, supply-driven programmes to a situation in which producers’ needs and market forces set the priorities for knowledge and information services is widely seen as key to improving AKIS/RD performance. In this context, a primary condition for expressing demand for innovation is for the public sector to adopt a demand-driven orientation. In many ways, this equates to empowering producers. Establishing local-level programme advisory committees consisting of local producers and stakeholders is one way to build demand-driven programmes.

In order for innovations to make financial sense for agricultural producers, the public sector must also support market development and access to credit and other reliable and timely inputs. Agricultural producers often lack adequate roads, transportation facilities, electricity and other physical infrastructure, as well as access to markets, which are often long distances from their farms. They also lack sources of agricultural knowledge and information. Developing physical infrastructure in rural areas can open doors for enterprising producers. In advancing AKIS/RD, one key is to ensure effective linkages, preferably through joint planning among the agencies responsible for research, education and extension. For agricultural producers to operate in a globalized world, governments must be ready and willing to support the development of people in the rural sector, including not only men, but also women; in most developing countries women contribute significantly to production for market, as well as domestic activities. Such development must be targeted to poor and disadvantaged groups, including indigenous peoples who are often living in remote and less favourable production zones that have been by-passed by previous government programmes.

Demand-driven orientation in public programmes

Demand-driven programmes respond to the problems, needs and interests of agricultural producers, and involve them in programme governance, priority setting and evaluation, often by working through and strengthening producer organizations.

Public sector AKIS/RD programmes can adopt a demand-driven orientation by involving producers in setting priorities and in programme governance and evaluation. Participatory planning and implementation help to inject users’ views and priorities into programmes. The full empowerment of demand comes when users pay for services under a market system, using either their own resources or funding provided through public programmes. Wealthier farmers have nearly always been able to make their voices heard and gain access to whatever government services have been available.

Uganda shows promise of becoming a demand-driven system in which farmers are empowered and agricultural development programmes and activities are responsive to their needs. In Trinidad and Tobago, four public sector commodity programmes are cited as being demand-driven: new varieties of cocoa, new varieties of sugar cane, farm certification, and hot peppers export. The National Marketing Development Company (NAMDEVCO), a private company that manages municipal and regional wholesale and retail marketing outlets throughout the country, developed these programmes. Most of the fresh fruit and vegetables produced locally by small farmers are marketed through NAMDEVCO.

While Malaysia’s system appears to be effective, it may not yet place enough emphasis on targeting the public goods of food security, sustainable agriculture and environmental conservation, and it lacks a demand-driven approach that promotes farmer-relevant and effective processes of knowledge and technology generation, sharing and uptake. Pakistan’s public sector programmes are also not demand-driven. The top-down approach appears to dominate in most of its AKIS institutions.

Agricultural markets

Increasing a farmer’s productivity means little if there is no viable market available for the sale of products.

Markets must be available for farmers’ products if farmers are to seek and invest in innovations that enhance productivity. Policy and infrastructure condition market operations, while market information services provide direct support to producers seeking to improve their marketing efficiency. Sanitary and phytosanitary regulations, certification of production processes (e.g. organic production, fair trade, geographic origin), and grades and standards are becoming increasingly important ways of gaining access to global markets. These all require significantly higher knowledge and information inputs into production and marketing. Competitive markets with level playing fields for all participants have generally proven to be the most efficient in promoting overall competitiveness in the rural sector.

In the Cuban case study, although there is no mention of support for agricultural markets, internally there is a major drive to promote local markets. Uganda is confronted with a number of opportunities. Market-oriented commercial farming is to be promoted in the context of Uganda’s National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS). However, the agriculture sector, despite its importance, remains constrained by insufficient information, knowledge, improved technologies and market linkages to catalyse increased production and productivity among rural farmers.

Input supply systems (credit, supplies)

Credit and supply systems are necessities for agricultural producers to invest and develop their products.

Credit and supplies must be available for producers who wish to adopt innovations. In the past, input supply and credit systems were often run, and constrained, by public sector policies or parastatal operations and subsidies. In many countries, this era is passing, but the evolution of competitive, efficient input supply and credit programmes is a long-term process. Such support institutions are critical elements of AKIS/RD, and are necessary for the sharing of impacts of other knowledge and information programmes.

In Africa, credit institutions often develop at the local level. In Cameroon, for example, there are traditional savings and credit structures at the local level in different regions of the country. These institutions, known as "Tontine" in the local language of Northwest Province, are based on mutual trust. In Uganda, input supplies will be the responsibility of the private sector. In Cuba, urban agriculture has become a major source of food security, and there is a network of stores where agricultural producers can buy equipment, seeds and other supplies, as well as receiving technical advice. In Trinidad and Tobago, farmers’ organizations and other stakeholder cooperatives provide inputs.

Physical infrastructure in rural areas

Undeveloped rural infrastructure is a brake on rural development.

Roads are as essential as markets, especially feeder roads. Electricity, clean water, schools and the other amenities associated with adequate physical infrastructure are equally important. Roads and transportation facilities are critical for agricultural producers who need access to markets. Such infrastructure is often most deficient in the remote areas or less favourable production environments populated by indigenous peoples and minority groups.

In Lithuania, as in many of the other nine developing countries included in this study, the rural infrastructure is underdeveloped. Along with other factors, this means that the quality of life is lower in rural than in urban areas, and rural poverty is widespread.

Cuba also struggles with poor physical infrastructure. In Malaysia, AKIS operators suggested that the government should play a proactive role in accelerating new technology transfer by providing substantial funds for infrastructure development. Undeveloped rural infrastructure is a brake on rural development.

Coordination and joint planning

Joint planning provides the main mechanisms for developing partnerships and networks that can make AKIS/RD effective.

Collaborative planning and the exchange of information with their client groups and other stakeholders are important for AKIS/RD agencies and help them to respond to rural needs. Participatory planning and priority setting, client surveys and diagnostic studies, and client participation in oversight boards and programme evaluations help to orient programmes to the real demands of their client groups.

Collaboration in Cameroon is a concrete reality at the central as well as the provincial levels. At the programme level, the participatory approach has brought research and extension closer to end-users. In addition, multidisciplinary and interministerial teams have become the rule, and this development supports further cooperation between researchers and extensionists, as well as with rural organizations, most of which are controlled by women. Cameroon’s current AKIS approach recognizes and utilizes farmers’ indigenous knowledge, which is introduced to extension agents, then diffused to research personnel and, subsequently, to other farmers. In this way extension services become a link between researchers and farmers, passing information down from research and up from farmers, while increasing their own awareness of both applied and indigenous knowledge.

Researchers in the Malaysia Agricultural Research Institute (MARDI) carry out field research in farmers’ fields, although farmers do not actively participate with the researchers. Nonetheless, formal monthly planning meetings and weekly conferences between the Ministry of Agriculture and its agencies do facilitate joint planning and collaboration. Through this mechanism, the Minister meets individually with each agency director, and written decisions are followed up through a decision tracking system.

Several countries lack joint planning mechanisms (Lithuania, Pakistan, Trinidad and Tobago), and this is particularly true as regards education institutions. In Pakistan, for example, none of the universities and colleges has any joint education, research and extension projects or programmes, with the exception of Peshawar University in North West Frontier Province, where agricultural research institutes were placed under the university as part of a United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded programme many years ago. This pattern has not been repeated in the other three provinces. Since the 1960s, when universities were separated from agricultural departments, education institutions have remained divorced from agricultural research and extension.

Education and training of agricultural producers

Education and training for agricultural producers is transformative, highly effective in developing society in general, and crucial to the success of AKIS/RD.

Several case studies highlighted government efforts and investments in basic rural education (primary and secondary, as well as adult education programmes). Education is critical to AKIS/RD in that it empowers and capacitates rural people to take advantage of other opportunities and to take control of their own development. Almost all of the country case studies emphasized the importance of agricultural education and training, and almost all lamented the numerous constraints to such education and training. The problem is not new, as Box 1 confirms.

Although Lithuania is rapidly developing its AKIS institutions and promoting an AKIS/RD, many of its specialists still lack sufficient training in the utilization of information technologies, and there is a shortage of knowledge about the possibilities provided by these. According to the Trinidad and Tobago case study, the existing education and training system is not providing the knowledge and skills necessary for development of the agriculture sector, thus contributing to the lack of competitiveness of the domestic and export agriculture subsectors.

In developing countries, the curricula of agricultural colleges and secondary schools are often not related to the needs of the job market. The mechanism for changing curricula in educational institutions is rigid and does not respond to the reality of the world outside these institutions. For example, the Egypt case study states that the central management of secondary schools has led to a clear separation from the environment in which the schools are located.

Capacity building and entrepreneurial training programmes can have a positive effect in changing economic and social life. In Chile’s rural areas, human resource development stands out as a transformative factor with a great impact, especially notable as regards the technical aspects of business training, the organization of local cooperatives and the establishment of community organizations. This is the basis of Chile’s social capital. In Lithuania, a modern AKIS that is responsive to changing markets and social needs is rapidly evolving. The Agricultural Chamber promotes agricultural knowledge and information exchange and serves the needs of its members, especially for market information. The adult education system is well developed and plans to promote greater specialization and quality in training programmes. The Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture considers agricultural extension to have a primordial role in agricultural development because it covers both information provision and the training of farmers, building their capacity in agricultural production and marketing techniques, professional organization, and the preservation of natural resources and the environment.

Gender inclusion

The importance of women in agriculture and agricultural research, education and extension is a source of strength that should not be underestimated.

Lack of gender equity in development programmes and societies has long been recognized as a major brake on economic growth and poverty reduction. AKIS/RD programmes are particularly important in this regard given the large role that women play in rural production systems. Because the importance of improving gender equity in AKIS/RD programmes is so widely understood, it is surprising and sobering that more country case studies did not indicate progress in this regard.

Notwithstanding the low numbers of women in extension programmes in Morocco’s Regional Offices of Agricultural Development (ORMVAs), in general the Project to Support Agricultural Development (PSDA) seeks to improve the well-being of farmers’ families through training women farmers and financing a number of income-generating projects. Another of the project’s innovations is to include groups of female farmers from areas outside the individual ORMVA in field trips, thus encouraging the exchange of experiences related to the financing and management of income-generating projects.

In Cuba, women are given full responsibility and participate fully in social and economic development. Women constitute 58 percent of higher education students, and the first extension professionals to graduate from the Agrarian University of Havana were women. It is noteworthy that in Pakistan some AKIS institutions have taken gender issues into consideration in individual programmes.

The Uganda case study makes no special mention of gender issues under either current or future programmes. This is a lack in a programme whose framework for AKIS/RD appears to be operationally well conceived.

Partnerships and networks

Effective institutional cooperation usually involves such structures as councils and committees that meet on regularly to review advances or setbacks in AKIS/RD. Partnerships are generally agreements that involve cooperation between the public and the private sectors. One example is public sector contracting with private sector entities for the delivery of extension services (Rivera and Zijp, 2002). Partnerships with agricultural producers and the latter’s participatory involvement in programme development are central to a pluralistic AKIS/RD. Networks are of many kinds - informal usually being the best, if not necessarily permanent - and the use of communication technologies continues to provide major vehicles for networking. Modern technologies such as computers and the access they provide to the Internet and agricultural information are useful in developing specialized networks.

Structures and mechanisms for effective institutional cooperation

In the final analysis, AKIS/RD is expressed in terms of effective institutional cooperation.

There are various kinds of agricultural linkages: agricultural policy is linked to institutions and their programmes; knowledge and information institutions (research, education and extension) are linked to serve agricultural producers; and other agricultural support institutions (credit, supplies and marketing) are linked to the agricultural development process in general. There are also partnership linkages, in which the public sector links to agribusiness, NGOs, rural development agencies and other related organizations. All of these linkages are important and form the essential web of connections for agricultural and rural development to be successful.

Joint planning fora help AKIS/RD institutions to "get to know" each other in terms of their respective strengths, weaknesses and programmes. This can strengthen each institution’s individual programme and provide a basis for more extensive partnerships and more effective mutual efforts towards AKIS/RD goals. Joint planning is key to developing policy-mandated rural development. Joint planning encourages AKIS agencies to align themselves strategically (i.e. through close linkages and mutual effort towards jointly conceived goals) and to seek partnerships with private sector AKIS entities. Joint planning makes the difference between AKIS agencies operating independently and their operating as a team of institutions to accomplish national and locally determined agricultural and rural development goals.

Linkages in agricultural knowledge support systems bring many benefits. When agricultural education, including workforce training and outreach programmes, links with research and extension, it produces skilled workers, upgrades the workforce and sometimes provides assistance to extension workers in the field. When research - including basic, applied and adaptive - links with extension (and also with agricultural [higher] education), it provides new (laboratory and applied) knowledge to extension, produces new knowledge in cooperation with extension agents in the field, and provides new knowledge to instructors at the higher education level. When extension links with research and agricultural education it provides agriculturally related information directly to farmers, supplies feedback on research trials to researchers and increases the information on farmers’ needs that is available to researchers.

Chile has developed a variety of mechanisms for generating, transferring and diffusing knowledge and information to a multiplicity of stakeholders with diverse and not necessarily specialized goals. Egypt’s Regional Research and Extension Councils (RRECs) and national campaigns are two powerful linkage mechanisms at the national and regional levels. In Lithuania, there is collaboration among research, extension and education, and good international links throughout the system. The agricultural extension service works on both community and rural development -not just on agriculture. Extension is responsive to market changes, and sensitive to Lithuania’s integration into the European Community (EC).

In Malaysia, formal and informal mechanisms link various operators for the purpose of joint planning and integrated operations within the context of AKIS/RD, and for assessing their suitability and effectiveness. As already mentioned, MARDI researchers carry out field research on farmers’ fields to ensure the suitability of the research. In addition, formal monthly planning meetings and weekly conferences between the Ministry of Agriculture and its agencies facilitate joint planning and collaboration. However, at the field level, only some formal and informal collaboration takes place. MARDI has established a Research Council in which agencies and the university are well represented and that functions as a mechanism to promote integrated operation among these. Ad hoc committees operating between the agriculture agencies and the private sector appear to be especially useful in piloting R&D projects in a coordinated manner.

In Morocco, the Economic and Social Development Plan (PDES) links AKIS/RD operators. PDES organizes meetings every five years for AKIS operators and every two years for the Commission of Agriculture and Dams and the Committee of Education, Research and Extension, which is also known as the Subcommittee of the Technological Sector. Trinidad and Tobago has yet to establish mechanisms that emphasize the integration and coherence of policy formulation, planning and decision-making at the macro and micro levels.

Existence of strong public-private partnership (institutional pluralism)

In some cases, the private sector can assume certain public sector responsibilities; in other cases it can serve to carry out public sector responsibilities more efficiently.

There is an absolute need for knowledge in a fast-paced, rapidly changing world, and all available resources must be employed to compete in the twenty-first century. The private sector can play an increasingly important role in rural knowledge systems, but total privatization is not feasible, even for commercial agriculture (Hanson and Just, 2001; Rivera and Alex, forthcoming). The appropriate mix of public and private roles can best be determined through piloting and learning from experience. Government must be realistic about the limits of fully private extension (as must donors). Nonetheless, including the private sector in extension systems is vital, and two strategies -subsidizing farmers to contract with the private sector and public sector contracting with the private sector - are already being employed. Because commercial firms provide many services directly, opportunities for public-private partnerships or public support for selected services from private firms is well worth exploring. In short, the public sector holds the key to policy reform directives requiring new or revised public policy vision, i.e. decisions to institute major structural and fiscal reform measures, including the involvement of the private sector. Only the public sector, i.e. national governments with the concerted help of their sub-governments, can assume these responsibilities.

The Trinidad and Tobago study argues that the State must become a facilitator of private sector activity and a supplier of essential public goods and strategic private goods. Increasing the incomes of participants in the agriculture sector is recognized as an extremely important policy objective, given that agriculture provides the lowest returns of all sectors in the economy. The Uganda study also recognizes that government will need to invest in developing private sector stakeholder capacities, in order to create a private sector extension competence from which agricultural producers can draw. Uganda foresees reform of the role and approach of agricultural advisory service providers, through a shift from public to private delivery of advisory services within the first five-year phase and the development of private sector capacity and professional capability to provide agricultural services.

Morocco’s National Programme for Agricultural Extension and Research (PNVRA) involves all relevant ministries in coordinating among themselves at both the central and provincial levels, as well as with private sector commodity organizations. The Morocco study argues that a policy that involves contracting the private sector for various services and a mandate that makes all those involved assume their professional responsibilities are required.

In Malaysia, the Third National Agricultural Policy predicts greater collaboration between the Ministry of Agriculture’s agencies and selected private sector companies in the fields of research and large-scale agricultural production. Assistance to farmers in the formulation of business plans relating to farm and fishery operations also results in some collaboration between extension and the private sector.

Programme participation by agricultural producers and their organizations

As with demand-driven programmes, participation results in agricultural producers becoming more interested in technological and institutional developments.

One key strategy to stimulate the development of small-farmer agriculture is to promote farmers’ organizations. Such organizations have considerable potential to address the institutional and organizational problems involved in increasing the productivity and income-earning capability of small-farmer agricultural systems. This potential is somewhat belatedly recognized by governments and development agencies, in part because initial work with such groups took the leadership away from them and made them tools of development programmes, rather than independent actors working in their own self-interest (Collion and Rondot, 2001).

In Cameroon, the impact of the PNVRA at the farmer level has resulted in farmers, both men and women, becoming more interested in a variety of agronomic and institutional developments. This interest has led to farmers becoming more self-dependent and creating rural organizations, such as the Groupements d’Initiatives Communes. In Malaysia, FOA’s Board of Directors is considered a viable mechanism to ensure farmers’ participation in planning, implementing and monitoring FOA’s programmes.

Despite Egypt’s efforts to advance linkages institutionally and through national campaigns, no mechanisms were identified that allow farmers to develop their expertise and participate in preparing extension plans.

Effective use of mass media and modern communication technologies

Mass media, computers and related technologies are key to systematic field activities, as well as to administration, collaboration among related institutions, and the gathering, analysis and dissemination of information.

Mass media and development communication technologies have been around for a long time, but have not been used to full effect. A multiple mass-media system consisting of a range of tools (printed materials [newsletters], telephone, radio, television, video and computer networks) can be utilized to support an evolving, pluralistic knowledge-based rural information system that serves multiple end-users. These multiple users might be newly emerging farms of various types, public and private institutions, communities, agro-industries, and departments of agriculture. Communication technologies also allow for the easy introduction of information other than agricultural, targeting other issues in rural development (FAO, 2002a). Communication and information services promote agricultural and rural development and can provide important networks and tools for the success of food security and food safety programmes. Additionally, these services often contribute a more participatory and integrated focus to projects that are limited to technology demonstration of such initiatives as participatory, community-based and targeted communication activities.

New information and communication technologies have the power to revolutionize AKIS institutions’ ways of working. These tools carry most promise in delivering information to intermediaries in rural areas, but they can also make information and knowledge readily available to all potential users (e.g. through Internet access). Critical to the effective use of these technologies will be their connection with more traditional information and knowledge dissemination mechanisms, as when the Internet provides information for use on rural radio or in local newspapers, or when farmers and produce buyers use cell phones to check market prices or market requirements.

In Egypt, information and communications technology are currently being used to strengthen linkages between research and extension. The Virtual Extension, Research and Communication Network (VERCON) and Expert System technology are being employed in research institutions and by extension services within the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation (MALR). There are plans to extend this network horizontally to include more governorates and new stakeholders, and vertically to expand its contents. VERCON provides a space where research and extension communicate and cooperate. However, farmers have reported sometimes receiving conflicting recommendations from the system. Uganda’s current programmes make use of traditional technologies, as modern forms of communication are limited owing to their cost and the low levels of literacy in rural areas.

The Lithuanian Agricultural University and the Rural Business Development and Information Centre (RBDIC) have accumulated experience in the process of creating and implementing information systems. However, there is still a lower level of education in rural than in urban areas. There is limited financial reward for most agricultural producers, many of whom would like to acquire computer equipment and utilize e-mail. Some components of Agricultural Information Systems (AIS) are insufficiently developed, as is the communication infrastructure in rural area.

Financing systems for innovation

The structures, conditions, partnerships and networks to advance AKIS/RD require investment; adequate funding is needed. In most cases, this will likely need to be provided by the public sector, and in some cases by assistance from international lending and donor organizations. Some funding can be acquired through cost-sharing arrangements. Most countries already charge a cess on export commodities, but the potential of cost sharing through fee-based services is being adopted increasingly as a viable and important means of forcing end-users to recognize the value of agricultural information and to contribute to its cost. Some specialists in the sociology of research and extension refer to this development from a different, but related, angle, noting the "commodification" of agricultural information (Buttel, 1991).

Financing strategies are more and more attuned to "developing markets for knowledge and information services". While this may be a sound long-term strategy, in the short term the challenge is to build a base for the development of such markets and to avoid situations in which public financing or programmes compete with or crowd out services that can be provided by the private sector.

Adequate funding for AKIS/RD

Adequate funding for AKIS/RD is the linchpin of their operations.

Public financing is generally essential to support a core AKIS/RD capacity. The achievement of a sustainable AKIS/RD depends in large part on having sustainable financing. This, in turn, derives from the system’s productivity, relevance and effectiveness in addressing the needs of its clients, and on measuring and promoting awareness of its impact as a means of building political support for continued funding. Without this, an AKIS/RD is unable to create adequate capacity, mobilize human resources and ensure availability of the material means to achieve its expected goals.

In Cameroon, funding for research has been made competitive to encourage all public and private entities to engage in agricultural research activities. In Chile, at the time of the case study, extension services were still being paid in part by the public sector, but were being provided by the private sector with co-financing from agricultural producers. Despite the emphasis on private funding and competitive grants, costs still account for 20 percent of the National Institute of Agricultural Research (INIA) budget. One funding mechanism employed by Chile is the use of a range of competitive funds and co-financed assistance programmes to support producers and producer groups. Uganda’s PMA is viewed positively by the donors and is thus expected to benefit from a wide support base.

Cuba lacks adequate funding for AKIS/RD, and depends heavily on cooperation at the local level for the system’s development. In Lithuania, despite AKIS/RD’s rapid development, it appears that research funding is being reduced, even though research is generally productive. Cameroon and Uganda both receive funds for AKIS/RD from international and bilateral organizations, in particular the World Bank. Cameroon receives funds from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the African Development Bank (ADB) and Belgium, as well as from commodity companies. As with all the countries reviewed, Morocco’s AKIS/RD requires adequate funding to support innovation and improve the quality of instruction, research and outreach. Inadequate financial, infrastructural and human resource development allocations are preventing Pakistan’s AKIS institutions from developing.

Repartition of costs

Cost sharing by major stakeholders promotes ownership in the AKIS/RD.

Repartition of costs is the dividing or distribution of costs. The term may refer to various methods of cost sharing, e.g. with end-users through fee-based payments for service, with private sector entities through co-financing and the distribution of costs to private sector providers, and via partial privatization or government payments to private sector entities for services rendered. However, these terms are separable concepts, and the distinctions among them are not always made clear.

Producer financing has long existed in the form of cesses on exportable agricultural goods. Fee-based repartition of costs through the user pays principle is the basis for commercial advisory and technical services (e.g. veterinary services) and is becoming more prevalent with public sector-financed or -delivered services. Co-financing is common when the State joins with the private sector in mutually beneficial projects. The partial privatization of public sector tasks, by way of contracting for services from the private sector, is also not new - and is much discussed in the current literature. Repartition of costs seems an inevitable occurrence as the commodification of knowledge and information becomes more evident, and the need for modern technological knowledge increases.

Regarding fee-based payments by end-users, it is generally an expected development that end-users pay part or all of the costs of services issuing from agricultural knowledge and information systems. However, one of the greatest problems with fee-for-service extension is that the producer often has limited knowledge of the value of the service until it has been received. "Determining ex-post willingness to pay for extension may offer little indication of the viability of fee-for-service extension or of appropriate fees to charge" (Hanson and Just, 2001).

Uganda’s PMA envisages both partial privatization and fee-based repartition of costs for extension services. The plan foresees separating the financing of agricultural advisory services from government provision by creating options for the financing and delivery of appropriate advisory services for different farmer types, gradually reducing public financing’s share of farm advisory costs and using public finance to contract privately delivered advisory services. In Malaysia, the private sector is already cost sharing 5 percent of the research costs of MARDI, with the government paying the remaining 95 percent. Pakistan, as already mentioned, lacks the financial, institutional and trained human resources necessary to plan, implement and monitor programmes associated with AKIS/RD. Attempts at cost sharing are almost non-existent.

Investment to develop stakeholder capacities

Investment to develop stakeholder capacities is crucial to the success of AKIS/RD.

Community demand-driven development (CDD) programmes are in vogue, in which donors enable rural people to set priorities and the development agenda - typically by transferring funds to community groups to procure the goods and services needed for local projects. This often carries programmes towards agendas that cover more than agricultural production. Such direct financial control enhances producers’ ability to express their demand for AKIS/RD services, and to get the types of services they want, by making service providers accountable for service quality. Other investments in rural people and institutions, although less direct, can also strengthen the demand for AKIS/RD services.

Farmers’ organizations in developing countries often help to create demand for and supply of agricultural support institutions that effectively reduce the constraints to technology utilization in small-farmer agriculture. Byrnes (2001) notes that technological change depends on a mix of technical and institutional reforms that reallocate resources "so as to remove those resource constraints that are most inelastic and those institutional constraints that are most restrictive of growth and development". He poses the question of which types of technical and institutional reforms will be required for technological change in agriculture, and cites a statement by Grabowski (1981) (see Box 2).

In countries seeking to develop AKIS/RD, investment to develop stakeholder capacities is crucial to the ultimate success of the strategic system. Financial and human resource development constraints may discourage joint planning between farmers and extensionists, educators and researchers, thereby frustrating attempts to promote AKIS/RD.

Training constitutes the most dynamic aspect of Morocco’s PSDA. Training is directed at all the stakeholders in agricultural development (supervising staff, technicians, farmers, rural women, professional organization members). Pre-service and on-the-job training of staff in charge of agricultural development has led to important qualitative changes in their working methods. The training of farmers not only improved their technical skills, but also transformed them into interlocutors who are better equipped to express their needs and define programmes.

Innovative features in the case studies

All of the case studies reveal some unique or innovative feature - whether the country seems to be at the threshold, on the road, or leading the way towards an effective, integrated AKIS/RD.

In addition, the national consultants contributed a number of insights (such as the diagram from the Pakistan case study, which is cited in this study as Figure 2). These insightful contributions are innovative and have been recognized throughout this study.

Adopting explicit policies and plans

Most of the countries analysed have policies or plans for fostering the development of AKIS/RD. Uganda and Cameroon have the most explicit national strategies for this. A high-profile national plan or strategy statement can be an important tool to mobilize and coordinate the use of resources, but it does not ensure successful implementation of the strategy. Pakistan, and Trinidad and Tobago have formulated national plans, but these are only partially implemented. Donors may contribute international experience and objective analysis for the development of national strategies and plans, but national ownership is critical to sustainable implementation.

Targeting public goods

Most of the countries are targeting public goods, such as food security, natural resource management and clean environments. In 1986 in Chile, an Inter-Ministerial Commission for Rural Development outlined a multifaceted attack on rural poverty, which sought - among other things - to boost income-generating capacity through modernized agriculture and technology transfer. This programme used existing National Institute for Agricultural Development (INDAP) assistance for better endowed small producers (Integrated Technology Transfer Programme [PTTI]), and initiated a special programme for the previously neglected, smaller and poorer segment of the farming population (Basic Technology Transfer Programme [PTTB]). PTTB beneficiaries were small, marginal producers who were considered to have inadequate resources to achieve self-sufficiency from on-farm activities. INDAP considered the PTTB to have a primarily social emphasis. In contrast, PTTI focused on the productive/commercial development of participants, with social development arising as a secondary benefit. This is an excellent example of a country where the AKIS/RD thrust was concerned with both the public good and commerce.

Cuba explicitly includes the provisos of Agenda 21 into its National Strategy for Science and Innovative Technology, emphasizing the importance of natural resources and the physical environment. Sustainability is underscored as an important component of every agricultural project. The government places great emphasis on food security, self-sufficiency and environmental sustainability.

Developing urban agriculture

In line with its goal of targeting public goods, the Cuban Government officially encourages urban agriculture, which has become an important source of food, especially in Havana.

Promoting economic efficiency

Case studies make little mention of the economic efficiency of innovation systems, with the exception of Cameroon. The Cameroon case study estimates the cost of its PNVRA to be about US$46.1 million, of which $29 million are for programme investments and $17 million for recurrent costs. The total annual costs (both investment and recurrent) of the extension programme represent about 0.4 percent of agricultural GDP, excluding forestry extension programmes. It is calculated that recurrent costs amount to about US$10 dollars per farm household. Therefore, the case study argues, investments in research and extension are a productive way of using public funds.

Designating AKIS/RD units

In Cuba, the Agricultural Extension System (SEA) appears to be a designated AKIS/RD unit that collects data on AKIS/RD-type developments. Uganda claims AKIS units in both research and extension, but also states that there is a lack of adequate resources and staff to make these units operative. Units are also hampered by the lack of linkages and collaboration among public sector AKIS institutions. A sustainable AKIS/RD depends on establishing adequate structures to facilitate the mobilization - from both the private and the public sectors - of human resources and the material means to reach the expected goals. Establishing an institutional unit or placing an individual in a key ministry or AKIS/RD agency charged with promoting collaboration and linkages can be critical to AKIS/RD development, even though it is not a sure solution (as evidenced by the failure of many research-extension linkage units). Such coordination mechanisms are more likely to succeed when they have input into the allocation of budgetary resources.

Strengthening human resource management

Actions to support AKIS/RD require that the management and programme development skills of public sector agricultural extension staff be strengthened (Alex, Zijp and Byerlee, 2002). Management will be required to assume new tasks, such as: developing ongoing services and collaboration with the private sector; appraising the private sector’s potential to contribute to agricultural extension delivery services for productivity purposes, and involving the various entities in that sector in cost-beneficial agricultural extension delivery services; and training national, district and local agricultural extension staff in the skills required to assist the joint execution of AKIS/RD activities.

Cameroon found that a strong system of central and provincial supervision is important for AKIS/RD development. The central structure is made up of seven units. While not necessarily innovative, this system of supervision stands out because of its systematic organization and attention to each of the project goals. Supervision in the ten provinces falls under nine units, which essentially carry out tasks similar to those undertaken by the central structure.

The Cameroon and other case studies also mention the importance of managing human resource development - a task that used to be known as "personnel" but that now includes a far broader horizon of responsibilities. Human resource management (HRM) in the public sector is involved with workforce planning, the measurement of results, and how best to invest in human capital. Strategic HRM deals with several questions: 1) What do we want to accomplish in our organization? 2) What kind of work does this involve? 3) What kind of people do we need? 4) When will we need them? 5) What will they have to do to be successful? 6) How will we know whether they are successful? and 7) What changes in current staff are necessary (Cipolla,1999)? These are questions that demand strong leadership, as they involve the central core of development systems.

Using compact discs and the Internet for diffusing information

In Cuba, whenever new and pertinent information arises, compact discs (CDs) are generated and distributed around the country to staff in the AKIS and other relevant organizations. This innovative feature underlines the potential of modern technology in promoting linkages among institutions, groups and individuals.

In Malaysia most government agencies maintain active Web sites, which can be visited by the public. However, at the time of the case study, accessibility for farmers was an issue because interconnectivity was only at the State level, while district offices were only just receiving their computer equipment and had not yet been connected to the Internet.

Advancing decentralization and subsidiarity

Case studies identified a variety of strategies that countries are employing to decentralize authority to municipalities and farmers, these include the following:

• Uganda’s Decentralization Policy and Local Government Act give authority to municipalities and farmers to enable them to address issues of concern to local agricultural producers.

• Cuba set up a Forum on Science and Technology as a move towards disseminating knowledge and information about science and technology at the local level. This forum appears to be highly important for the country’s present and future development.

• Pakistan’s Research Master Plan for agriculture foresees the decentralization of much research administration to the provincial level. There is also a plan to devolve research authority to district administrations.

• Morocco has invested in the establishment of extension centres that serve as decentralized consultative institutional structures.

• In 1993, Lithuania established the Research and Studies Fund to facilitate better organization and financing of research and studies. The government provides the fund’s main budget, although contributions also come from private supporters (including private nationals, foreigners, international organizations, enterprises, foreign governments and institutions).

Using online monitoring systems

Malaysia has initiated the online monitoring of district programme implementation. This monitoring mechanism has been implemented in all Ministry of Agriculture agencies as an efficient way to enhance information flow, transparency and the efficient monitoring of activities. The monitoring of spending through online mechanisms also provides an innovative and efficient way to regulate the expenses of government agencies. Before instituting this online system, it was almost impossible to calculate expenditure over the budget allocated.

Ensuring stakeholder participation in programmes and projects

Given the need to democratize the rural sector, the present emphasis on stakeholder participation in programmes and community demand-driven projects seems correct. Questions of rural youth, minority groups and rural women need to be considered, because women often do as much if not more of the agricultural and other work than men do, and youth are the generation of the future. The remaining challenge is how to start integrating AKIS agencies into pluralistic networks for the common good. Given the new AKIS/RD vision of AKIS institutions, some governments have already begun to organize multisectoral networks of AKIS agencies and organizations, and support all the sectors involved in agricultural knowledge and information development.

Employing farmer-to-farmer initiatives

As part of government support to AKIS/RD, community-based organizational activities cover a wide array of approaches, including farmer participatory research (e.g. farmers and researchers working to generate original knowledge), participatory technology development (e.g. farmers and researchers working to adapt existing knowledge to new situations), Farmer Field Schools, farmer-to-farmer programmes, and study circles, not to mention farmer fora, farmer networks and workshops. Farming knowledge is varied and includes existing and new information, known and proven practices, and traditional indigenous knowledge. Decentralized management approaches are essential for community involvement and the development of effective client-driven activities.

Farmers need to be brought more fully into technology development and dissemination activities. Farmer-to-farmer extension is one means of activating peer-related development and underlines the reciprocal relationship between technological change and wider economic and social development.

Egypt has initiated farmer-to-farmer extension programmes, which have proved helpful in bringing farmers together and encouraging them to exchange knowledge and adopt new techniques. Cuba’s National Association of Small Farmers, established in 1997, has embarked on a farmer-to-farmer programme that forms a central part of its agricultural training and development strategy. One of Cuba’s projects is engaged in Workshops on the Organization of Local Experiences, which is both a tool for disseminating information on best practices in different spheres of agricultural, industrial and service activities, and a means of helping agents and producers to review their activities and consider what was most useful or difficult in their implementation.

Emphasizing agricultural education

Uganda’s PMA foresees the development of a curriculum for general agricultural education. Morocco’s high schools have also been improved by including agricultural technology in the curriculum.

Agricultural producers require basic, general education. Literacy and numeracy skills are often lacking, as noted in the Malaysia case study. Producers also need technical training and introduction to new technologies related to agricultural tasks (farming, livestock rearing, fisheries and forestry) and communication. Lithuania points up the potential of computers for enhancing linkages and information transfer among the rural population. Cuba shows how CDs can supply rapid information about new agricultural technologies to professional staff and end-users.

Instituting business planning programmes

The elaboration of business plans for agricultural activities, such as farming in Lithuania and farming and fisheries in Malaysia, tends to promote collaboration between, respectively, extension and credit institutions, and extension and the private sector.

Promoting public-private cooperation

High rates of adoption of improved agricultural technologies occur when government organizations, NGOs and private organizations form partnerships to extend agricultural technologies to farmers (Ojha and Morin, 2001). The adoption of improved technical recommendations appears to be partnership-specific, and partnerships in turn are context-specific. However, a pluralistic institutional framework requires that programmes be planned, implemented and evaluated jointly by multisectoral service providers on a location-specific basis, in cooperation with the private sector and farmers.

Malaysia’s Third National Agricultural Plan for 1998 to 2010 portends a crucial role for the private sector. In preparation, the country has devised ad hoc committees to operate between agricultural agencies and the private sector. These committees have already been useful in experimenting with the coordination of pilot development projects. The committees are composed of representatives from agencies of the Ministries of Agriculture and of Primary Industry operating in research, extension and education areas.

Trinidad and Tobago’s innovations are mainly in agronomic areas, e.g. cocoa, sugar cane and the introduction of integrated pest management (IPM) practices. However, as already noted, in 1995 the government decided to contract with the private sector to combat infestation by the hibiscus mealy bug.

Including producers in programmes

Consistency and continuity are important when implementing strategies aimed at producer participation in AKIS/RD programmes. Chile was one of the first countries to enable its private sector providers and to decentralize the agricultural extension system. This occurred under three different governments, which continued the country’s movement towards incorporating agricultural producers in programme participation and funding. This decentralization of the system has proved quite effective.

Pakistan has launched Pilot Area Real Life (PARL) projects, which deserve attention for their incipient participatory practices of including producers. PARL projects bring together all the development partners in an area to focus on the development of the farm household as a unit, with a view to achieving long-term rural development. PARL projects are being tried in all provinces, but results are still pending.

Utilizing modern communication technology

Several of the country AKIS/RD are using audio, video and written materials effectively. Egypt’s Central Administration for Agricultural Extension Services (CAAES) has improved its organization and efficiency through the effective use of such media.

Computer connectivity for technology transfer is also expanding, although its lagging in rural areas is a continuing constraint. Egypt, Lithuania and Malaysia stress the value and potential of computer connectivity for enhancing AKIS/RD.

The VERCON system, which was promoted by FAO and piloted in Egypt, is beginning to reach out to other ministries and regional centres, and is a significant innovation that other countries would do well to adopt. In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture’s Central Laboratory of Agricultural Expert System prepares CD packages of expert systems for analysing agronomic problems - an innovative boon to Egyptian farmers.

Lithuania’s agricultural knowledge and information innovations include adult continuous education systems and centres, the growing use of computers in schools and some rural organizations (including access to the Internet and international Web sites), the establishment of a Rural Business Development and Information Centre to promote an AIS, and publication of the Farmer’s Advisor newspaper and other farm-related periodicals.

Malaysia’s MARDI has started to use the Internet as a method of technology transfer, for example, the Rubber Small Holding Development Authority is at the planning stage of this. However, other operators have not shown interest in using the Internet for technology transfer because they view the majority of Malaysian farmers as being poor, illiterate and lacking in the knowledge and skills to use computers. These operators think that the future farmers of Malaysia should be better educated. Recently, the Department of Fishery has taken steps to educate future fishers at its training institutions.

Investing in stakeholder capacities

None of the countries reviewed showed any major innovations in the area of financing institutional development or securing partnerships with other AKIS entities. Most of the AKIS-related activities undertaken in the ten countries have already been established, although the case studies indicate constraints due to lack of resources, as well as inadequate planning and poor linkages. Trinidad and Tobago states that the Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Marine Resources lacks the necessary resources to develop the economic and productive practices necessary to advance an effective AKIS/RD. Some cases, Lithuania for example, complain that external funds are scarce and not easily accessible, while others indicate that sufficient financial resources are forthcoming; Malaysia, for example, found that this was the case, once the Third National Agricultural Policy had established agriculture as a strategic sector.

Malaysia has begun to invest in stakeholder capacities via FOA, which operates under the aegis of the Ministry of Agriculture and promotes farmer organization. FOA’s main programme at the grassroots level is to facilitate agricultural business within the area of each Farmers’ Association (FA). While FAs are directly linked to FOA, extension does not have any direct linkage with the farm operator who represents the local FA.

Exploring diversified funding for AKIS/RD

Various means of cost recovery need to be, and are being, explored. At present, the main source of funding is the State. In Lithuania most AKIS/RD costs are covered by the State budget, but funds may sometimes become available from other sources, such as local communities that have partnerships with research and extension, public and semi-public corporations, large farms and trade organizations, and - gradually - successful agricultural producers. In Eastern Europe, the World Bank is exploring the use and value of competitive grants for developing AKIS institutions, as noted in Section 1. Sources of funding other than the State will be discussed in greater detail in the following section on Lessons learned.