Institutional linkage analysis to identify the constraints of technology transfer and adoption in agriculture : a case of crop diversification programme in Bangladesh | |
| Author | Majumder, jiban Ranjan |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no.AS-02-05 |
| Subject(s) | Technology transfer--Bangladesh Cropping systems--Bangladesh |
| Note | A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Dissertation ; no. AS-02-05 |
| Abstract | Until the mid-1980s, development plans of Bangladesh had placed high priority to attain self-sufficiency in cereal foodgrains, predominantly rice and wheat, which made the country successful in achieving a breakthrough in production of these two crops. However, this success has often caused a reduction in production of traditional minor crops, including pulses, oilseeds and tubers that consequently aggravated unbalanced diet and malnutrition of the vast population. Against this background, emphasis was given for promotion of a nutrition-based agriculture, and planned efforts for increasing the production and use of minor crops were initiated during the Third Five Year Plan (1985- 90). In 1987, the government formulated a Crop Diversification Programme (CDP) as a relatively large planned intervention, which is being implemented jointly by four public institutions, namely research, extension, seed production, and marketing for last 12 years. The main objective of the programme is to facilitate the production of a number of minor crops such as pulses, oilseeds, tubers and spices through development and transfer of improved crop varieties and production practices to the farmers. But monitoring data show that the programme could hardly achieve its objective, as majority of crop varieties were not found adopted in the field to any reasonable extent. By employing a multilevel investigation, the present study revealed that the unsatisfactory performance of the programme has been rooted primarily into institutional constraints, because the implementing institutions could not establish and maintain functional coordination among them in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of technology transfer programme. The missing links between these public institutions resulted into two crucial problems; firstly, due to lack of functional interdependence, the technical information could not flow effectively within the whole system of CDP, which was a fundamental requirement for its proper management. Secondly, whatever research recommendations reached to the field could not be adopted by the farmers because of some important components of the technological packages were often missing. On the other hand, micro-level investigation revealed that inadequate involvement of, and participation by, the local stakeholders in planning process largely isolated informal local knowledge networks from the formal ones. As a result, the technology transfer and adoption programmes were formulated primarily focusing on agronomic issues to achieve the single-minded purpose of yield increase, which consequently created crucial gap between supply-driven intervention planning and farmers’ practical need. The extension agents often reported the low yield potential of crop varieties as main reason for their non¬-adoption, whereas scarcity of required seed and inadequate marketing facilities were frequently mentioned as critical constraints by the farmers. Theoretically CDP, as a planned intervention, was designed to be implemented within a defined structural boundary involving four major institutions into it; but in reality the desired structural and functional coordination of the programme was neither conceivable nor practicable to these institutions, mainly because they have been oriented on their own organizational mandate and culture since long past. Each of these institutions are relatively large in terms of their current structure and diverse activities; so, their CDP specific assignments appear to be incremental, if not burden, to what are already their regular activities. Further, these public sector institutions owe their origin to colonial powers, which left an imprint on them that militates against integration, relevance and responsiveness. Based the research findings, an alternative policy model has been suggested in view of improving the innovative performance of the programme, which calls for institutional reform, particularly of research, extension and support service organizations, to incorporate CDP specific activities within their priority agenda. Moreover, reform will also be needed to delegate authority to the local staff so that they can modify their operational strategy in order to respond to any emergent problem of the fanners. Considering the manpower constraint of public institutions, it is suggested that partnership building with local level private organizations, such as NGOs and farmer’s organizations, will open up opportunities for functional complementarity among them, and at the same time will be helpful to link informal knowledge networks with the formal ones. To monitor all these activities, formulation of joint coordination committee, involving representatives from all relevant public and private institutions, seems to be a basic requirement. Finally, it is hoped that the proposed model would be assimilated within the overall national policy environment of the government to improve the innovative performance of CDP in a systemic pattern. |
| Year | 2002 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Dissertation ; no. AS-02-05 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources (Former title: Department of Food Agriculture, and BioResources (DFAB)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Agricultural and Aquatic Systems(AS) |
| Chairperson(s) | Shivakoti, Ganesh P.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Ranamukhaarachchi, S. L.;Dale, Reidar;Suvedi, Murari P.; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh; |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2002 |