Terms from dictionaries and FAO publications

Technology definition for TECA
As a guide to contributors, technology is defined as practices or techniques, tools or equipment, know-how and skills, or combinations of the above components. Technologies always need to be described in their context, with policies, infrastructure, environment, culture, etc.

Technology: The study and knowledge of the practical, esp. industrial, use of scientific discoveries.
[Cambridge International Dictionary of English, http://dictionary.cambridge.org]

History of technology: The development over time of systematic techniques for making and doing things. The term technology, a combination of the Greek techne, “art, craft,” with logos, “word, speech,” meant in Greece a discourse on the arts, both fine and applied. When it first appeared in English in the 17th century, it was used to mean a discussion of the applied arts only, and gradually these “arts” themselves came to be the object of the designation. By the early 20th century, the term embraced a growing range of means, processes, and ideas in addition to tools and machines. By mid-century, technology was defined by such phrases as “the means or activity by which man seeks to change or manipulate his environment.” Even such broad definitions have been criticized by observers who point out the increasing difficulty of distinguishing between scientific inquiry and technological activity.
[Encyclopaedia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com]

Technology: … is the application of knowledge to the solution of practical problems to meet the basic needs of mankind in […] daily life in terms of energy, food, housing, health, clothing, transportation, etc. The application of knowledge to the solution of problems could be […] software, e.g. know-how; and hardware, e.g. materials.
[Kassapu, S.N. 1999. Background and overview of the consultation. In: Technology assessment and transfer towards sustainable development, food security, and poverty alleviation in Sub-Saharan Africa. Rome: FAO.]

Technology assessment (TA): … a way by which a given national agricultural research system can […] take stock of the level of knowledge about the environment, its resources and problems and how to control and utilize them productively and sustainably. A […] wider acceptable definition would be the ”analysis of societal impacts of technology application” so as to capture all possible affected areas such as environment, culture, etc.
[ditto]

Technology assessment: … is meant to address the widespread lack of capacity in many national agricultural research systems (NARS) to identify and capitalize on available, i.e., on-the-shelf and indigenous technologies for adaptation to location-specific problems and transfer to specified target groups. More specifically, it can serve to examine the impact of technology application from various points of view: resources, costs and returns, nutrition, health, safety, etc., for the users of a technology or sections of the society, the country, the region, the environment, etc.
[Kwaschik, R. 1994. Technology assessment for sustainable agricultural production systems and rural development in different agro-ecological zones – some conceptual considerations. In: Kwaschik, R., Singh, R.B., and Paroda, R.S. (eds.). Technology assessment and transfer for sustainable agriculture and rural development in the Asia-Pacific Region. Rome: FAO.]

Technology transfer: …a process encompassing various elements: (i) hardware (equipment, tools, machines, varieties, breeds, vaccines, etc.), (ii) technique (know-how, […] software procedures, agronomic practices), (iii) “human ware” (knowledge, education, attitude, ability), (iv) organization […] ([…] institutional establishment, management), (v) the final output or product that sets the direction and the level of effort, including marketing strategies, needed by the four other components.
[Singh, R.B. 1994. Technology transfer for sustainable agriculture and rural development in the Asia-Pacific Region. In: Kwaschik, R., Singh, R.B., and Paroda, R.S. (eds.). Technology assessment and transfer for sustainable agriculture and rural development in the Asia-Pacific Region. Rome: FAO.]