Partners in Agricultural Technology: Linking Research and Technology Transfer to Serve Farmers

The capacity of agricultural technology systems to establish and manage good linkages between researchers and technology transfer agents strongly influences the extent to which farmers end up gaining access to relevant and useful technologies. The International Service for National Agricultural Research conducted a study of the links between research and technology transfer in seven developing countries. The report synthesizes the findings and makes recommendations in four areas: the technology-system context (policy environment, donor policies, and the nature of existing farming systems) in which linkages operate; the effects of the system’s organization and structure on linkage behavior; resources for linkages; and the management of linkage mechanisms. An annex gives general guidelines for dealing with most of the linkage problems identified in the main report.