Placing agricultural research and technology transfer in one organization: Two experiences from Colombia
| Published date | 01 April 1990 |
| Date | 01 April 1990 |
| Author | David Kaimowitz |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230100207 |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Vol.
10,
199-207 (1990)
Placing agricultural research and technology transfer in one
organization: two experiences from Colombia
DAVID KAIMOWITZ
ISNAR
SUMMARY
Based
on
two experiences from Colombia, placing agricultural research and technology
transfer
in
the same institution is found to be neither a necessary, nor sufficient, condition
for effective co-ordination between the two activities or improved institutional performance.
Additional factors to consider include:
(1)
the specificity
of
the problems addressed;
(2)
the
institution's capacity to manage the co-ordination;
(3)
status differences and competition
over resources;
(4)
institution'al size; and
(5)
the level
of
politicization
of
the technology
transfer activities.
INTRODUCTION
Poor
co-ordination between agricultural research and technology transfer units is
one of the most serious problems in the organization
of
effective technology
provision systems in developing countries (World Bank, 1985; Snyder, 1986).
Often this problem is attributed, at least in part, to the administrative location
of
these activities in separate institutions
or
ministries (Blackenburg, 1984). This and
other concerns have led various authors to assert that it would be better to place
these activities in one institution (Collinson, 1981; Samy, 1986).
This paper addresses the validity
of
that assertion. Two distinct experiences
where both agricultural research and extension are in the same institution are
examined: the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) and the Colombian Coffee
Growers Federation. ICA is a public institution with a broad mandate covering the
entire nation and many crops and animal species. The Federation is
a
quasi-private
organization (see below), concerned mostly with coffee in specific regions. In the
first case, the incorporation
of
technology transfer functions into a predominantly
research institution in 1968 actually hindered co-ordination between the two
activities and may have been partly responsible for a decline in overall institutional
performance. In the second, however, having research and technology transfer
activities in a single organization did, in fact, facilitate co-ordination and
performance.
David Kaimowitz
is
a Research Fellow at the International Service for National Agricultural Research
(ISNAR), P.O.
Box
933705, 2509
AJ,
The Hague, The Netherlands.
0271-2075/90/02019949$05.00
@
1990
by John Willey and Sons, Ltd.
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