DOES AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH UTILIZATION AS A CHANCE IN AFRICAN?

Over the years, the role of knowledge in the betterment of the society has been an overarching theme. Knowledge can be defined as the capacity for action. The transformation of the prevailing structures of the society through knowledge constitutes the material basis and justification for designating modern society as knowledge societies (Caplain, 1976). Enormous thinkers in the 20^th century including Aristotle Plato, Sir Francis Bacon, Henri Saint-Simon, Auguste Comte, Karl Marx, and Max Weber contributed to the belief that the advancement of civilization was interwoven with the advancements in knowledge and its use (Caplain, 1976). Rich, (1979) notes that, a social contract evolved between the producers of knowledge and the society. Knowledge plays such an instrumental role in contemporary societies that, such societies have come to be known as knowledge societies (Caplain, 1976).

According to Rogers, (1995) knowledge creation and diffusion can be traced back to the European beginnings of social science with Gabriel Tarde’s laws of Imitation and early anthropologists known as the British, German-Austrian diffusionists. Backer, (1994) argues that, the roots of knowledge utilization can be traced from the ancient Greeks.  In America, knowledge dissemination and utilization can be traced back to the 1920’s with studies such as the diffusion of agricultural innovations to farmers and the spreading of new teaching ideas among schools. According to Rich, (1979), the increased funding of knowledge diffusion and utilization by the American government was as a result of recognition by the policy makers that innovation dissemination could contribute to higher rate of economic growth. Further, various institutions especially private institutions were interested in rapidly increasing adoption and extension of their technologies, practices and findings.

The rationale of research is to enlarge frontiers of knowledge and contribute significantly to human development (Oduwaiye, et al 2009). According to Court and Young, (2006) research is an indispensable tool that contributes to improvement in the quality of debates in the society through establishing general principles, concepts and identification of problems based on sound argument to guide the development process. Besides, research is important in the solving of concrete problems by providing concrete solutions.  

Research no matter how innovative it is, will not make a difference in the lives of the target community unless it is disseminated and utilized in an appropriate and timely manner. Dissemination of research is an important component of the research process. Once knowledge has been created, the next logical step in the information transfer process is it’s dissemination to relevant consumers. According to Lovell, (1971) dissemination can be conceptualized as getting the findings or new ideas out into the public domain, mainly through avenues such as publications, professional journals among others. According to Rogers, (1995) dissemination is the process by which an idea or innovation or finding is communicated through certain channels overtime among members of a social system, while utilization is the process that aims at increasing the employment of knowledge to solve problems and improve the quality of life. According to Burns, (2005) research utilization refers to the process of synthesizing and using research findings in order to make an impact on or a change in the existing practices within the society. Utilization of research results to a considerable extent depends on proper dissemination of the findings to the relevant consumers.

Backer, (1994) elaborates the concept of knowledge dissemination and utilization as encompassing the following facets; knowledge transfer and utilization, technology transfer, sociology of knowledge, organizational change, policy development and interpersonal and mass communication. Knowledge utilization cuts across different disciplines and specialties. Marshall and Rossman, (1989) explains that, dissemination of research results should be comprehensive and capable of being interpreted and used by the target consumers. More often, consumers complain of the technical language and analogies used to convey messages by researcher. Therefore dissemination of research results should be guided by the following questions; why should the targeted consumers get the research outcomes? What will they make from the research results? And, how will the research products improve the living standards of the consumers?

According to the African development Bank, (2011) there exists a wide gap between producers and consumers of knowledge; Research can have an enormous impact on development initiatives than it has to date. The effectiveness of translation of research findings to practice has been shrouded in mystery, with researchers as knowledge producers being unable to understand the failure despite clear and convincing academic dissemination avenues. In addition, development practitioners as knowledge consumers bemoan the inability of researchers to make their findings accessible to and digestible by consumers in good time. World Bank, (2010) notes that, most research undertakings don’t begin with identification of key knowledge gaps facing development practitioners, but rather researchers seek questions they can answer with the current methodologies as the basis of their research. Research should be based on a strategic approach that is firmly anchored on key knowledge gaps for development. Existing development gaps should inform the research agenda and not the researcher’s disciplinary background or the favoritism of methodologies.

Over the years, ample research has been undertaken focusing on understanding the institutional based barriers to utilization of research findings. According to Rich, (1979) the breakdown in ‘research - practice path’ may be explained by a number of factors which includes; limited time and money allocated to dissemination of research, limited dissemination channels, researchers lack the language or skills to present their findings to the communities, and besides research consumers must wait until the research findings get published in journals or seminars, which they may or may not access. More often there are numerous delays in publications of research findings with some research institutions reluctant to publish their work. Furthermore, there is massive quantity of data produced through research which makes it difficult for the consumers to stay on top of the latest findings. The prevailing academic culture which appreciates academic based activities more than community involvement which is viewed as done by the ‘so not good enough’ academicians also inhibits research utilization. Often community members view themselves as research subjects who seldom share in the benefit of research proceedings. On the other hand, researchers may intend to share their findings with community members, but the structures of research institutions make it difficult or untenable to do so. The funding institutions further rarely include requirements for dissemination in their call for proposals. In addition, careers of researcher and academicians are based on academically oriented dissemination venues such as peer reviewed publications on journals with little attention on community forums (Caplan, 1979). According to Duarte and Rice, (1992) Cultural differences may heavily impact on the way in which the potential consumers interact with and perceive research results. Such cultural differences may include; family boundaries, importance of religion, meaning of education and work, decision making styles, local beliefs and response to change. These cultural differences can be clustered in relation to the context, space, time, information flow, local norms and rules. Glaser and Taylor, (1971) posits that, culture places a major influence on the individual, collective groupings as well as the interactions between groups. There has been major emphasizes on, inter-group cultural differences and less insight on intra-group cultural differences. For example, considering rural communities in Kenya it would be fallacious to assume that all the community members prefer to access information from friends ignoring the members who prefer social media and other channels.

IFAD, (2012) posits that poverty remains significant in the past decades in Africa, East Asia and Latin America, despite significant progress made in other parts of the world. At least 70 per cent of the world’s very poor people live in the rural areas and a large proportion of these poor and hungry populations are children and young people. The population of the less developed countries is still more rural than urban with some 3.1 billion people or 55 (%) of the total population still living in rural areas. Nevertheless, with better utilization of agricultural research findings to inform development policies and practices, it’s possible to save lives, reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of people in the above regions (Court and Young, 2006). As indicted by ADB, (2011) agriculture supports the livelihoods of over two thirds of the regions’ poor and is the main economic mover in the developing countries. The value of agricultural research can only be measured in terms of its contribution to solutions of the farmer and the overall community. It is not enough to do research, and obtain results; the research results developed must rapidly be transferred to farmers, fields and be adopted.

Improvements in agricultural technology will continue to play a critical role in improving the welfare of rural communities and the general economy of countries especially in African. Given that, economic growth is the best remedy for poverty and that only a handful of countries have managed to attain economic growth without emphasis on agricultural growth, it follows that agriculture is a principal tool in the development of these countries. Cumulatively, agriculture benefits; rural and urban poor through provision of food as well as raw materials for industries, frees foreign currency for the purchase of capital assets, provides markets for industrial sector, reduces poverty through provision of employment and primary food commodities especially to the rural communities. High and sustained growth in agriculture is vital for African countries to accelerate poverty reduction. This is because agriculture has a powerful leverage effect on all the sectors of the economy especially countries within the early stages of development (FARA, 2006).

According to the World Bank, (2010) investments in agricultural research and knowledge generation constitute numerous strategies adopted to promote sustainable and equitable agricultural development in most of the African countries over the years. The focus on agricultural investment has gone through various transformations over the years. In the 1980s, agricultural research focused on strengthening the research supply systems at both the international and national levels. In the 1990s, the focus shifted to improving the links between research, education and the extension services and identification of farmers’ needs to inform the research process. The similarity between the two approaches was that, the link between researchers and research consumers remained linear with research knowledge being generated for extension officers who were expected to transfer new technologies and innovations to the farmers at the rural levels. However, the focus has recently changed with the realization that supply and demand for knowledge is far more complex than envisaged in the linear approaches. Research dissemination approaches involving many stakeholders are currently been appreciated as more effective in speeding the use of research knowledge for income generation by research consumers. The newer approaches emphasize on the totality of the interactions between stakeholders needed to encourage the utilization of research outputs.

Research coupled with appropriate supportive policies and effective dissemination and utilization can immensely contribute to improving the quality of life and ensuring harmonious functioning of the research to practice system. The key parts or structures of the ‘research - practice system’ includes; research undertaking to produce relevant results, supportive facilitative policy frameworks and the research consumers. Each of these units has their own distinct functions which are interdependent and wholly contribute to improved welfare. To ensure research utilization, there is a need to harmonize the functions of the different parts of the system (researchers, policy makers and consumers).
According to FARA, (2006) experiences from across Africa indicate that the effectiveness of agricultural technology generation and utilization depends largely on the relevance and responsiveness to farmer’s needs. It’s currently observed that, the needs of farmers’ do not sufficiently drive the orientation of agricultural research and extension of the findings: a fact that reduces the relevance and impact of agricultural research. Often community members view themselves as research subjects who rarely share in the benefit of research proceedings. In some instances, researchers may intend to share their findings with community members, but the structures of their research institutions make it difficult or untenable. The funding institutions further, rarely include requirements for dissemination in their call for proposals and also the careers of researchers and academicians is based on academically oriented dissemination venues such as; peer reviewed publications or journals with little attention on community forums.