Sustainable Agriculture May 2009
Science and farming: bridging the gap
Four participants at a conference for young agricultural researchers, Ibadan
Summary:
Why is there such a gap between work done in agricultural laboratories and actual benefits to farmers? Is it the lack of funding to implement scientific solutions? Are farmers resistant to scientists' ideas because they are not consulted in the research process? Are the media or extension services to blame, for not being interested in science or good at translating it into simple terms? Four participants at a conference for young agricultural scientists give their views.
Suggested introduction:
Scientists have been working for decades to make progress towards sustainable agriculture, to improve crops, control pests and diseases and develop more productive farming systems. But how much change has actually occurred on the farms of rural Africa? Very little, perhaps you're thinking. But why? What are the reasons behind the gap between the laboratory and the field? And is it the fault of the extension services, the media, the scientists or the farmers themselves?
Martha Chindong put those questions to four participants at a conference for young agricultural researchers held recently in Ibadan, Nigeria. Here's what she found out.
Tape in:
The problem to me lies with...
Tape out:
...we might not take it.
Closing Announcement:
Martha Chindong investigating why agricultural research seldom seems to produce genuine benefits for farmers. What's your theory?
Making the most of it:
How big is the gap between science and farming in your country? Talk to the researchers at an institution and farmers nearby. What help do scientists ask for and get from farmers? Can you be shown a result of research and show how scientists and farmers worked together to get the result? Many farmers do their own experiments all the time in their everyday work with crops or animals. What advice can scientists give them to encourage and guide this? Can farmers be good amateur scientists?
Transcript
Participant 1
The problem to me lies with both the scientists and the pressmen. The scientists in that they don't try to reach out to the pressmen so that they can let the people know the beneficial effects of their research work. If I discover a means of controlling an insect that destroys agricultural produce, that will have direct impact on the overall productivity of the farmer. It will benefit him, with more money in his pocket, less damage to his crops. I am expected to find means of reaching out to the farmers, and the best means is through the press, especially the radio. So that is the problem we scientists have. Another problem which I think is on the side of the press is that the press look for too much of sensational results from the universities: a cure for AIDS; a cure for cancer; a new satellite; a new drug. No, we should also look for information; the press should go out and look for information concerning agricultural breakthroughs that would benefit the rural farmers with a little increase in agricultural output. So it is a two-fold problem, and both of us have a lot of work to do in closing that gap, and reaching out to the farmers.
Participant 2
The media should play a good part in this whole thing, for again the problem here is that you do have a number of press people who aren't really into sciences, or into agriculture. Now the problem is, how do they transfer that information that you give to them in the right form to the end users, who are the public. I think this will get much better if you have journalists who tend to specialise in, say, reporting science issues or reporting agricultural issues. I think that would definitely help. And again, if you have more scientists who are willing to let the press people have this information. I think somehow it would stick. If you get to hear one thing several times, it sticks in your memory. But when you get to hear just once you tend to forget about it, so that's the part the press people can play, because as long as they keep talking about it, and people are getting to hear them, then the chances that farmers will get to implement some of the findings that we do get, will be higher.
Chindong
Do you have any other concrete proposals?
Participant 2
Well, I think scientists at research institutes could also engage in more on-farm participatory work, in which case they can actually demonstrate some of these things they have found.
Participant 3
It is not a problem of one person, like most people will think or attribute it to the extension worker, but everybody has a role to play here. You from media now, there is a role you have to play. The researcher has a role to play. The extension worker has a role to play. The farmers themselves who are having the problem of accessing the research outcomes, has a role to play.
Chindong
These people are there to play their roles, and actually they have been playing, but why is it not working?
Participant 3
The government has to fund agriculture. They must make loans available. So the problem of finance is one of the major ones they are facing, because most of the research solutions, those that are available to them, they cannot implement them, simply because maybe the task for them to practice this on their farm is too high for them to afford. Another is, if you want somebody to adopt your system, the welfare of the farmer has to come in. Remember he has one thing he is practising already, so for him to abolish that, to drop that, that means that there have been some things you must have demonstrated. You must be concerned with the community itself; the infrastructure lacking in that community. Then the farmland, you have to consider. Then the kind of farming system, all of these have to be put together, for one to really say OK, you want to convince a farmer to adopt or to get a research solution. And also there should be a role given to farmers also, to also make their own problems known, because it is when you make known your problems that it can be tackled, and where there is need for additional costs to implement, then government has to come in. So it is everybody's participation.
Participant 4
In giving them the information, you have to respect their own opinion. If you don't respect their own opinion, if you think, OK I have come to give you a solution to your problems, you have to follow all that I have to say, you don't have any opinion, they might be feeling inferior and they might be feeling stubborn that, he is trying to make it a kind of enforcement on us; we might not take it. End of track.
