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Abstract
Investments in agricultural research can have significant payoffs for agricultural development. This has led donors to invest large amounts in agricultural research projects in third-world countries. Yet despite this major investment of funds, very few third-world countries, particularly in Africa, have been able to develop effective agricultural research systems. This limited progress can be traced in part to the absorptive capacities of national agricultural research systems (NARS) in relation to donor-funded projects and the difficulties that NARS have in reconciling broad research mandates with resource constraints, particularly manpower. This paper focuses on these issues in relation to the special problems of small developing countries, where an effective agricultural technology management system (ATMS) is even more essential in allocating very limited research resources. Concurrently, the dangers of major distortions in the research system from external support are generally far greater than with larger NARS. Small-country NARS tend to be thin/fragile, but an effective ATMS can turn this to advantage since the research system may be more receptive to change than larger systems.