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Historical Analysis of the Effectiveness of AKST Systems in Promoting Innovation | 81

Table 2-4. Constraints of university arrangements.

Funds Universities have to share budgetary allocations with other public sector agencies for agricultural research. In Latin America, e.g., expenditure per researcher diminished strongly in the 1980s, and then recovered in the nineties but without reaching the previous position.
Scientific culture Different knowledge paradigms and scientific culture pervade teaching, research and extension activities addressing societal problems. Most public concerns or problems are multidisciplinary, while most university departments are disciplinary. Research, especially in the agricultural colleges-produces fundamental knowledge under standards of rigor focused on "manageable" (well defined) or "technical problems," not always pertinent to social needs. Teaching follows the same disciplinary pattern, moving from simple units to complex ones in five to six or more year programs. There is little latitude for interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary work, though professional practice deals with ill-defined, complex and practical problems of agriculture that are "incapable of technical solution" and are intertwined with social and cultural patterns and ethical issues. Needs for synthesis of diverse elements, and interdisciplinary approaches.
Outreach requires a different epistemology of science, because it faces real, synthetic and complex problems, and needs training in communicative competences and participatory approaches.
Promotion and reward Academic staff are usually promoted and rewarded on the peer review system. Although this system has served certain fields of agricultural science well, it does not allow much credit for societal value or social pertinence of research contributions, and gives less value to teaching and extension. It also emphasizes the big gap between basic and applied research and between wealthy and developing countries´ academic and research systems and also marginalizes basic research in industrialized countries.
Curriculum policies In many universities, curricula were broadened to encompass environmental sustainability, poverty alleviation, hunger elimination and gender issues. But this trend has not always been followed by specific fund allocation to programs oriented to these goals, nor have interdisciplinary courses and social sciences-sociology of organizations, cultural anthropology, IP issues, food security, and some crosscutting subjects, such as Ethics, always been included. Change is sometimes cosmetic.
Enrollment and graduation rates Enrollment of agricultural students is today very low compared to total university enrollment. This is a generalized trend even in countries with a high share of agricultural GDP in total GDP and a high ratio of rural to urban population, mostly in non-industrialized countries. Likewise, graduates in agricultural programs (agriculture, forestry and fishery and veterinary) have a very low percent of total graduates. In many countries where agriculture is a major source of income, employment and export earnings, and thus critical to alleviating rural poverty and safeguarding natural resources, the percent of graduates is low (UNESCO, 2005).
Gender issues Despite their key role in agricultural and food production and security, agricultural information and education is not reaching women and girls. Greater awareness of women's contributions to agriculture and changing discriminatory practices and attitudes are needed to foster their participation in agricultural education and extension. Not many women professionals are trained in agriculture due to factors rooted in the gendered nature of culture and society. Women's participation in higher education in agriculture is increasing, but is still lower than that of men, even in the developed countries and in Latin America and the Caribbean, where women participate in higher education in nearly equal numbers with men (UNESCO, 2005).

rests on concern for both agriculture and rural communities; enterprise development, revenue and welfare; education and research as a privileged knowledge and information activity for faculty and students and as a service to meet citizens' needs. The task of forming, educating and empowering farmers and young farm leaders has been a key strategic objective, resting on tripartite funding contributions from education, agriculture and state agencies at various levels. Farmers have opportunities as well as a right to participate in forming and assessing university research priorities and outputs. Outreach and service count in professional advancement; and the universities' own institutional advancement- even survival-rests on accountability to the broad constituency it serves.

  

     On the other hand, in industrialized countries, particularly in the US, universities have emerged as the nation's main source for the three key ingredients to continued growth and prosperity: highly trained specialists, expert knowledge and scientific advances. There is some evidence that more recent shifts in the balance of public and private funding is affecting the type of research and teaching and hence narrowing the range of available AKST systems. One paradigmatic and controversial case was the agreement between the Novartis Agricultural Discovery Institute and the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of Berkeley. Under this agreement Novartis provided $5 million per year in support of basic research at the department and in return was given the right to license patents held by the University
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