This is Andrew Fieldsend of the Research Institute of Agricultural Economics in Budapest and IMPRESA national expert for Hungary. IMPRESA (http://www.impresa-project.eu/) aims to evaluate the impact of EU research on agriculture, collecting data on recent trends in investment in agricultural research, and developing a framework combining case studies, econometric analysis and modelling for assessing its impact. Hungary is one of 20 European countries in which IMPRESA has begun a country-level analysis of the agricultural research expenditures and an assessment of the availabilities of data regarding public and private investments in agricultural research.
My earlier career was in crop development, including 16 years working on the development of novel oilseed crops for a private sector pharmaceutical company. My research mainly covered plant breeding and agronomy and crops were grown commercially across the world including Canada, France, Hungary, Netherlands, New Zealand, UK, USA and (former) Yugoslavia. Whilst following this interesting and stimulating discussion a few points have come to mind:
As a commercial company we monitored the impact of our research in terms of value-added through quantitative indicators such as yields per hectare (which over time translated into lower prices paid per tonne of seed in real terms), and seed oil content and quality (see, for example, Fieldsend [2007]). This can be considered as ongoing evaluation, carried out each year in each growing area. Data collection was considerably helped by the fact that seed was grown on contract with individual farmers via a commercial seed company in each country. I wouldn't say that we knowingly used any kind of qualitative indicators although in fact we kind of did: these crop species were not easy to grow and whether or not enough farmers were prepared to grow the crop at the contract price on offer was a reflection, at least in part, of the impact of our research.
Shahid Sheikh (message 59) said "our research organization do not have public relation wings to communicate the activities and findings of positive results of research with all stakeholders". I am not offering any criticism of this statement, rather I would use it to illustrate a point. Whilst we compiled detailed "guidelines for growers" publications that were disseminated via the commercial seed companies mentioned above, a key aspect of our work was that the researchers themselves visited each of the growing areas once a year with a view to meeting as many farmers as possible. This gave the researchers themselves the opportunity/responsibility to "communicate the activities and findings of positive results of research with all stakeholders" rather than to somehow delegate the task to someone else. At the same time it gave the researchers the opportunity to see at first hand the impacts of their research, and to get first hand feedback from the most important players (the farmers) on what worked, what did not and why not, and what new areas of research and development should be explored. Again there was no doubt a qualitative impact in that giving the farmers the chance to meet the researchers first hand (hopefully) increased their confidence in growing the crops.
Finally, one technique that we did not use, but no doubt could have done with relatively little organisational effort, was the facilitated group learning approach (see, for example, Murphy (2012) and Owen and Williams (2012)). Whilst, as the name implies, the technique might at first be considered as a way of communicating information TO farmers, in fact the evidence shows that it provides an inclusive environment not only in which farmers are more willing to volunteer information and opinions, but which also stimutates discussion and the dissemination of information.
Dr Andrew Fieldsend
Head of International Group
Research Institute of Agricultural Economics
1093 Budapest
Zsil utca 3-5.
Hungary
Email: andrew.fieldsend (at) aki.gov.hu
References;
- Fieldsend, A.F. (2007). "The impact of plant breeding on seed oil content and quality in evening primrose crops," in Proceedings of the Joint International Conference on Long-Term Experiments May 31st-June 1st Agricultural Research and Natural Resources; Debrecen-Nyírlugo, Hungary: 29-36. http://web.t-online.hu/aff56/Andrew/p21.pdf
- Murphy, J. (2012). The contribution of facilitated group learning to supporting innovation amongst farmers. Studies in Agricultural Economics 114 (2), 93-98. http://dx.doi.org/10.7896/j.1106
- Owen, W. and Williams, E. 2012. The utilisation of groups for innovation and knowledge transfer. Studies in Agricultural Economics 114 (2012) 99-105. http://dx.doi.org/10.7896/j.1218
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