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AKST Systems in Latin America and the Caribbean: Evolution, Effectiveness and Impact | 87
erate and interact with each other and with the broader
environment. These developments have brought about new requirements
regarding the attitudes and communication processes
needed to facilitate dialogue and linkages between, on the
one hand, those who generate technological knowledge and
innovation and, on the other, those responsible for other
links or factors indispensable to the development, productivity,
and competitiveness of the production chain or watershed—
suppliers, producers, traders, and financiers, as well
as officials in charge of infrastructure, public policies, and
institutions, and those in charge of information and communication
mechanisms aimed at enhancing participatory
development. It is also necessary to improve the efficacy and efficiency
of universities and other existing research, development,
and technology transfer institutions. This calls for the creation
of formal and informal mechanisms for interaction,
including service contracts between such institutions and
private sector users. In that respect, special programs
and mechanisms have already been established to promote
and facilitate linkages between agricultural research bodies
and farmers.16 For the past several decades, moreover, private enterprise
has become actively involved in the AKST system and
has assumed an increasingly important role in the development
of certain innovations (such as genetic products, machinery,
and agrochemicals) and their dissemination among
producers through the sale of inputs or services. As a result,
public research institutions find themselves in the dilemma
of either (1) competing, (2) withdrawing from the field and
focusing their efforts on developing other innovations, or
(3) attempting to cooperate on joint strategies. In other
words, public AKST institutions face the challenge but also
the opportunity of working with private AKST institutions
on projects of mutual interest. This decision has strategic
political implications that must be considered. It will test
governments’ vision and their willingness to generate new
game rules, or standards, for public-private partnerships, in Another challenge facing AKST institutions in LAC is to take advantage of the enormous potential offered by new fields of knowledge such as biotechnology and nanotechnology, which are being incorporated at a different pace by the countries of the region.17 _____________________ 16 For example, INTA in Argentina has implemented a
technology transfer program, while Brazil’s EMBRAPA and
Chile’s INIA have special programs in their regional centers.
In Mexico, INIFAP has established the Cattle Ranchers’
Technology Validation and Transfer Groups, the Experimental
Farmers, and the MOCAT groups. For its part, civil society
has created the Patronatos and the Produce Foundations to
support agricultural and livestock research. In Bolivia, SIBTA
has moved toward a model in which a good deal of technological
innovations is carried out by private foundations that
obtain financial support from the Government’s budget. |
Although such developments may offer interesting alternatives
related to people’s well-being and quality of life,
the level of investment required, together with patent- and
copyright issues, could become insurmountable obstacles to
taking advantage of their potential to benefit the region’s
poor. New developments are being used mostly by industry
and the service sector, where users have purchasing power
and the interests of investors are protected by intellectual
property rights and patents. One of the greatest challenges
facing small- and medium-sized countries in LAC is to review,
update, and reinforce mechanisms and processes for
regional cooperation in this area. Tables 2.2 and 2.3 summarize
the factors that condition AKST’s potential to develop
more productive, sustainable, and equitable systems.
They also summarize AKST’s most significant impacts in
Latin America. 2.1.6 Interactions between organizations and
knowledge networks Starting roughly around the 1980s, and varying from country to country, a reappraisal was made of the relations between organizations and knowledge networks. Two reasons accounted for this: the need to provide agile and innovative responses to the changing environment; and the redefinition of the role of public and private actors in agricultural research and technological innovation. Although the ways in which networks have developed
in the different countries display major differences, some
important changes that have occurred in the last 25 years
can be identified across the board: In many countries, the relative importance of government
investment in agricultural research declined, although
it continued in the universities, increasingly relying on resources
from the productive sector. The role of extension services has been redefined for
budgetary reasons and due to the restructuring of the state’s
role in agriculture. As a result, some extension tasks have
been privatized and different types of civil society associations
and organizations have intervened more actively in the In general, private or non-governmental actors have taken a more active role in the generation, validation, and transfer of agricultural technology, partly on the initiative of agroindustrial firms and providers of seeds and inputs, but _________________________________________________ tems. Biotechnology includes knowledge and management of soil microorganisms, different types of compost, green manures, forage crops, multiple-crop systems, biocultures, rhizosphere microbial cultures, efficient microorganisms, and bacteria that promote growth in plants and induce systemic resistance. These are just some examples that expand the horizons of biotechnology, and should be given equal consideration in government financing policies (León et al., 2004). |
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