El tema de la Segunda Conferencia Trienal del Foro Global de Investigación Agropecuaria (GFAR) que se celebró en Dakar, Senegal, del 22 al 24 de mayo 2003 (GFAR 2003) versó sobre la Investigación Agrícola y la Innovación Rural en pro del Desarrollo Sostenible. Fue realmente un tema adecuado dado el objetivo global actual y la atención sobre los aspectos del desarrollo sostenible así como el aumento de interés por la investigación en los procesos innovadores.
This report is concerned with the ‘who?’ ‘what?’ and ‘how?’ of pro-poor extension. It builds on the analytical framework proposed in the Inception Report of the same study (Christoplos, Farrington and Kidd, 2001), taking it forward by fleshing out the analysis with empirical information gathered from several countries during the course of the study (from primary data in Bolivia, Colombia, Nicaragua, Uganda and Vietnam, and from secondary sources in a range of other countries, including India), and drawing conclusions on the scope for action by governments and donors in a range of contexts.
This case study in the development of hot pepper marketing in the Caribbean covers the period from the early 1980's to 2000. During the period several partnerships were forged among a host of public and private research institutions, export agencies, private companies and farmer groups to solve major constraints along the commodity chain.
Mainstream agricultural research has focused primarily on technical and biological aspects and is aimed at controlling or manipulating nature through the use of external inputs, such as
agricultural chemicals or super seed. In developing countries, the results of this research have benefited some resource-rich farmers in well-endowed areas, were suitable to only a limited
extent for poorer farmers in the more favourable areas, and were - in most cases - completely inappropriate for small-scale farmers in marginal areas, e.g. in the mountains or the drylands.