• Develop and appraise empirically based models of knowledge "exchange" suited to the new agricultural paradigm, combining indigenous and new knowledge sources and linked to concepts of sustainable livelihoods;
• Develop participatory methods for identifying criteria for AKST designs that meet the needs and resources of different target groups, especially as this informs the advantage, acceptability, robustness and convenience of AKST offerings to users;
• Develop and mobilize new communication channels, agents of change and "knowledge brokers" where appropriate, including web based sources, machinery contractors and specialist advisors, respectively;
• Develop a framework for the analysis and design of programs of collective action, for example in water management; and
• Integrate social science research into other sciences to ensure relevance of AKST products.
6.2.10.5 Rural development
Research and development can be undertaken with a greater concern for its role in sustainable rural development. It is important to factor in differences in social and environmental contexts as well as farmers' livelihood strategies and the diverse range of stakeholder interests. A key question concerns the roles that agriculture can assume in the sustainable development of rural areas. Agricultural research can and should play an important role in the collective efforts aiming at sustainable rural development:
• The contribution of agricultural research can address the challenges of a more complex countryside. Farmers follow many different and new livelihood strategies and an increasingly diverse range of stakeholders need to be taken into account; an improved understanding of the dynamics and multifaceted nature of rural development and of the roles that agriculture can assume in a more comprehensive process of sustainable development is necessary (FAO, 2003; Knickel, 2003);
• The more recent emphasis on countryside stewardship has at least three driving forces, all related to consumption: first, the rising environmental movement; second, increasing interest in recreation in the countryside; and third, a great residential shift out from the cities to small towns and villages. Use of labor in stewardship tasks consistent with the concept and financing structures of a policy of multifunctionality in agriculture can greatly increase the quality of community life in rural areas. A key question is how to balance the often-diverging interests or the occurrence of "clusters of compatible and mutually reinforcing activities" (Van der Ploeg and Renting, 2000). The active construction of synergies at farm household, farm and regional level could be better understood and promoted (Knickel and Renting, 2000);
• The multifunctionality concept effectively changed the understanding of the relationship between agriculture and society in more integrative ways; it recognizes that a strict segregation of different functions (living, producing, nature conservation, etc.) is less and less real- |
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istic; research approaches can be adapted accordingly (Marsden, 1995; Saccomandi and Van der Ploeg, 1995; Van Depoele, 2000; Knickel et al., 2001; Hervieu, 2003; Cairol et al., 2005);
• Sufficient research is lacking on how to optimally facilitate and ease the future development of less-favored areas and of agriculture and rural areas in the NAE region and particularly in the Eastern European countries. The latter are faced with a substantial fall in the number of farms due to historical trend of consolidation and a particularly severe decline in agricultural employment. A marginalization of farm households and entire regions is predicted, and the related impacts of such on rural livelihoods can be addressed in research and policy.
6.3 Development of Human Capital, Organizations and Institutions
Paradigm shifts and key issues relating to the future of agriculture within NAE and its interactions with the rest of the world, as explored in earlier chapters, have not just simply arisen overnight. Over the past few decades, increasing numbers of individuals and groups of scientists, educators, practitioners, policymakers and a range of AKST end-users in NAE have already been identifying, exploring and increasing their understanding of multifunctionality and its implications for design and delivery of AKST. In this regard, a number of individuals, groups and organizations in some of the countries of the NAE region have initiated changes that facilitate the development of human capital and associated institutional arrangements necessary for generating, providing access to and promoting the uptake of the newer and wider forms of AKST (OECD, 1995a; Lucey, 2000). A process of change has begun but it is still in the hands of the innovators and early adopters. A number of governments have encouraged the process. There have been some individual success stories but most of the newer approaches are hardly yet mainstream or sustainable; the rhetoric exists, but the reality lags well behind. It appears that there are many barriers, not only human, but also organizational, institutional or systemic (EURAGRI, 2005).
It is proposed that the process of reconfiguring AKST activities, both within NAE and in their partnerships with other regions, be dramatically accelerated so that they are jointly enabled to contribute most effectively to meeting sustainable development goals (Schneider, 2004).
The following sections explore some of the options, on a range of fronts, for this desired development, based in part on the experiences in NAE countries and analyses conducted to date by the OECD, governments, AKST agencies and individual scholars.
6.3.1 Towards interactive knowledge networks
Agricultural Knowledge Systems or AKS (long-standing OECD-adopted term) span the three main components of research, education and extension (OECD, 1995a). There are close links between these three elements of the "knowledge system," which now require more of a "network approach" and the development of substantially greater synergy. There is an increasing shift from a unidirectional |