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May 2005 FAO/GTZ Workshop on Effective Communication between Agricultural Research, Extension and Farmers18-22 October 2004
Development experiences of the last decades have shown that human resources development is essential for food security and market integration. Achieving sustainable agricultural development is less based on material inputs (e.g. seeds and fertilizer) than on the people involved in their use. This focus on human resources calls for increased knowledge and information sharing about food production. New agricultural technologies are generated by research institutes, universities, private companies, and by the farmers themselves. Agricultural extension services are expected to disseminate them among their clients, but due to poor linkages between research and extension the adoption of new agricultural technologies by farmers in the developing world is often very slow and research is not focussing on the actual needs of farmers. In many countries the insufficient agricultural development has been attributed, among other factors, to poor linkages between Research-Extension-Farmers and to ineffective technology delivery systems, including poor information packaging and lack of communication systems. To meet such rural development constraints, FAO and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) [German Agency for Technical Cooperation] held a technical workshop on issues related to Communication for Development, Research, Extension and Agricultural Information Management. Both organizations have gained considerable experience in these fields and are mutually engaged in joint activities which put knowledge and information at the heart of any rural development initiative. The workshop was conducted jointly with the Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry Laimburg, an internationally known centre of excellence in research – extension linkages for agriculture.
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