Institutional linkages for different types of agricultural technologies: rice in the eastern plains of Colombia

Abstract

In 1987, the International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR) initiated a major international comparative study on the links between agricultural research and technology transfer in developing countries. Like other ISNAR studies, this study was developed in response to requests from agricultural research managers for advice in this area. It is being carried out with the support of the Governments of Italy and the Federal Republic of Germany ard the Rockefeller Foundation. The objective of the study is to identify ways to strengthen the links between agricultural research and technology transfer systems in order to improve: (a) the relevance of research efforts through a better flow of information about farmers' needs for the research systems; (b) the transfer of technology to agricultural producers and other users of agricultural technologies. Four rice technologies from the Eastern Plains of Colombia are used to show that the generation and transfer of different types of technologies require distinct institutional configurations and linkages. As rice growers' technological needs have shifted, the institutions serving them have also had to evolve. This has been facilitated by the flexibility of the Rice Growers Federation (Fedearroz) and strong interinstitutional coordination among Fedearroz, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and the Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA)