Seeking half our brains: constraints and incentives in the social context of interdisciplinary research.

Rhoades, Russell; Cernea, Michael M.; Kassam, Alnaaz

doi:10.1079/9780851990033.0403

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…There is a rich literature that explores efforts to bring about effective M&E, learning and change (e.g. Horton et al, 2000;Gurung and Menter, 2004;Merrill-Sands et al, 1989;Rhoades, 2005). However, a recent review of natural-resources research projects funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) indicates that many of the same problems persist despite their being repeatedly observed and reported in the past (Lenne and Thomas, 2005).…”

Section: P L a N N E D R E F L E C T I O N L E A R N I N G A N D C Hmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning From the Positive to Reduce Rural Poverty and Increase Social Justice: Institutional Innovations in Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Development

Biggs

2008

Ex. Agric.

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SUMMARYThis paper argues that opportunities for reducing poverty, improving social justice, and influencing policy and institutional changes are being missed as a result of not learning enough from situations where positive changes in development indicators have already taken place. After a review of research on monitoring and evaluation (M&E), positive deviance and studies of ‘success' stories, three case studies of positive change are presented. These are the spread of bamboo tubewell irrigation in Bihar, changes in agricultural research and extension policy in Nepal, and the spread of groups and group-based organizations/federations in Nepal. General lessons include: (1) effective institutional innovation is always new and social arena specific, (2) many opportunistic social entrepreneurs are always present in arenas of positive social change, and (3) there is always purposive selection of what to observe, what to measure and what to publicize. Practical implications include: (1) strengthening social science research on understanding change in agricultural and natural resources systems, (2) selecting people for research and development intervention situations based not only on technical competence but also a track record of interest in social justice development principles, and (3) strengthening a broader concepts reflection and learning within current research and development interventions chan is currently practiced. While learning from the positive is a simple idea, it is always challenging to implement as it inevitably questions the histories, past explanations and perceptions of some scientists and development planners, especially those who promote a mainstream, formulaic approach to the design and promotion of best policies and best practices, and a simplistic, non-political/cultural approach to the transfer and scaling out and up of technology and institutional models.

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Section: P L a N N E D R E F L E C T I O N L E A R N I N G A N D C Hmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning From the Positive to Reduce Rural Poverty and Increase Social Justice: Institutional Innovations in Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Development

Biggs

2008

Ex. Agric.

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“…The challenging question is "Can or should the pipeline model of agricultural innovation and participatory model effectively co-exist in a public agricultural research institution (Morris and Bellon, 2004)" It can be argued that scaling impact of the agricultural research that benefits the poor requires change in the way in which the current agricultural innovation system is organised (Rhoades, 2005). A shift from pipeline agricultural research model to participatory research and extension does not just require adoption of a simple set of techniques such as participatory rural appraisal, farmer visits, farmer evaluations, and farmer experiments; these are necessary but not sufficient conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Participatory research demonstration and its impact on the adoption of improved agricultural technologies in the savannas of West Africa

Olarinde¹,

Binam²,

Fatunbi³

et al. 2017

Afr. Crop Sci. J.

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Despite continued progress in the development and promotion of improved agricultural technologies, and the gradual process in agricultural research for development (R4D) programmes, adoption rates are relatively low in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Recommendations have, therefore, been made by national and international research institutions and stakeholders for more involvement of the smallholders in evaluating promising agricultural technologies. This study assessed the impact of the participatory research demonstration on the adoption of the technologies promoted by the sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Programme (SSA CP) using the innovation platform (IP) concept. Results showed that 67 and 59% of the IP and non-IP farmers, respectively, reported that researchers and extension personnel decided on the technologies for research or demonstration. Fifty-two and 43% of the IP and non-IP farmers, respectively, perceived research and demonstration to be very useful. The type of technology or demonstration that farmers mostly participated in was crop variety (IP farmers=72.87%; non-IP farmers=70.19%). Following our analyses which are based on the Instrumental Variable (IV) approach, participation in research and demonstrations significantly increased adoption of the demonstrated technologies by 99%. We observed a 100% significant increase in adoption of the demonstrated technologies in the sample of IP participants. The main factors that determined the adoption of the demonstrated technologies included membership to farmer group, and distances to input and output markets.

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“…It follows that one challenging institutional question is whether the T&V and participatory models can effectively co-exist in a public agricultural research institution (Morris and Bellon, 2004). It has been argued that scaling up and out the impact of the agricultural research that benefits the poor requires change in the way the current agricultural innovation system is organized (Rhoades, 2005). A shift from a T&V agricultural research model to participatory research and extension does not just require the adoption of a simple set of techniques such as participatory rural appraisal, farmer visits, farmer evaluations, farmer experiments -these are necessary, but not sufficient, conditions.…”

Section: Organizational Transformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Responding to the Challenges of Impact Assessment of Participatory Research and Gender Analysis

Lilja

Dixon

2008

Ex. Agric.

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Since the Green Revolution, the public-sector's agricultural research strategy for increasing food crop productivity has been explicitly based on the premise that technology can cross political and agroclimatic boundaries, primarily through the 'training and visit' system of extension (also known as 'transfer of technology' and the 'pipeline' model). Today, a different strategy is emerging. Efforts to develop the necessary institutional capacity for more client-oriented participatory research, particularly in plant breeding, are now a central part of the public-sector agricultural research strategy. Greater use of participatory and gender-analysis approaches in agricultural research has significant conceptual and methodological implications for impact assessment and institutional learning.

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Seeking half our brains: constraints and incentives in the social context of interdisciplinary research.

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

Learning From the Positive to Reduce Rural Poverty and Increase Social Justice: Institutional Innovations in Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Development

Learning From the Positive to Reduce Rural Poverty and Increase Social Justice: Institutional Innovations in Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Development

Participatory research demonstration and its impact on the adoption of improved agricultural technologies in the savannas of West Africa

Responding to the Challenges of Impact Assessment of Participatory Research and Gender Analysis

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