Limited understanding of the policy process is one of the important barriers for the scientists: To overcome this, scientiststs' capacity need to be build up in this domain. In fact, it should be taught at educational levels itself, while doing Master's or doctoral programmes in agricultural or food science subjects. For instance, in India, a new course POLICY ENGAGEMENT AND EXTENSION has been recently introduced at doctoral level in Agricultural Extension discipline (Course Content attached) by Indian Council of Agricultural Research. This course was resisted initally by some faculties, citing there was no standard text book available and also stating that why this course is needed? Since I was involved as a Member of Committee in revising & designing of New courses in the discipline of Agricultural Extension, I do get queries from faculty in Agricultural Universities seeking guidance on this course. In fact, a phone call today regarding this courses prompted me to write this post. As far as possible, we tried to source the available references on policy- what & how policies are made, impact of policies, policy engagement etc. In fact, the References given in the attached document as resource material for this new course on Policy Engagement and Extension, could be useful for many scientists looking for reading material on policy development. What we need at the moment, a systematically written text book on Policy Enagagement in the field of Agrifood systems. Any suggestions/guidance in this area? May be some experts can organize webinars covering different topics sharing their experiences. We do have a very effective platform, https://www.aesanetwork.org/ which can coordinate webinar for the benefit of faculty responsible for the course on Policy Engagment & Extension. Anyone willing to deliver lecture on any one of th etopics listed in the course content? This is the way we can probably overcome the barriers!!
Dr. Mahesh Chander