Institutional Reform of Agricultural Research and Extension in Latin America and the Caribbean
After a period of strong support in the 1960s and 1970s, public funding for research and extension activities in LAC began to wane in the 1980s and 1990s. The strained economic context for many countries required the search for more cost-effective...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2006/05/7014895/institutional-reform-agricultural-research-extension-latin-america-caribbean http://hdl.handle.net/10986/10312 |
| Summary: | After a period of strong support in the
1960s and 1970s, public funding for research and extension
activities in LAC began to wane in the 1980s and 1990s. The
strained economic context for many countries required the
search for more cost-effective and efficient strategies for
producing, disseminating and applying new knowledge and
information in agriculture. At the same time, the demand for
innovation became all the more pressing, as increased global
competition required improvements in agricultural
productivity. Consequently, many countries in the region in
recent years have sought to revitalize their agricultural
research and extension systems through a series of
sustainability of funding for these services. Reflective of
the drivers of reform, the focus has been on the following
principles: 1) diversification in execution and funding; 2)
allocation of funding on a competitive basis; 3)
demand-driven financing; 4) empowerment of local
communities; and, 5) increased private sector participation
in implementation of the reform agenda. A series of case
studies from the LAC region, including Brazil, Chile,
Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, were
conducted to review these institutional reform experiences
in agriculture and distill lessons learned to further
advance agricultural innovation systems in the region. The
following summarizes some of the key trends in both
agricultural research and extension based on the analysis of
these varied country experiences. |
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