Asia-Pacific Regional Workshop on Agricultural Research for Development - Proceedings, 17-18 April, 2008, Bangkok, Thailand
The past five decades have witnessed tremendous growth in agriculture. With its intensification and diversification, there has been a paradigm shift in operationalization and management of agricultural research for development(ARD). This has necessitated emphasis on participatory research, both multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary, to achieve desired goals of food security and poverty alleviation, and address issues concerning natural resource management, environmental protection etc. In this context, effective involvement of the civil society organizations (CSOs), mainly the non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to mobilize action at the grassroot level, with major focus on socio-economic development of small farmers and marginalized farming communities becomes critical. On the contrary, the collaborative research efforts involving public institutions, CSOs/NGOs and other stakeholders have been rather limited and not so well organized.
To address the above concerns, the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI), jointly with the Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC), with support of Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), organized an “Asia-Pacific Regional Workshop on Agricultural Research for Development (ARD)” from 17-18 April 2008. Over 25 experts from NARS, CSOs/NGOs, GFAR, FAO, CGIAR and other organizations such as the Forum of Agricultural Research for Africa (FARA) had participated. The meeting discussed ARD priorities, opportunities and challenges in the Asia-Pacific region, sharing the experiences of NGOs in ARD. The meeting further advocated the need to establish an Asia-Pacific NGO Consortium and discussed the possible modalities for its operationalization in order to address emerging issues of food security, poverty reduction, social and gender equity, linkages among scientists, policy makers, farmers and NGOs and strengthening links between research and extension. It was mainly emphasized that research focus has to be farmer centered in a participatory mode.
It was also unanimously felt that the Consortium will provide strong linkages of NGOs with researchers and farmers, and develop mechanisms for better access to information and technology dissemination. It will also help in carrying out advocacy work, to scale up research for development with emphasis on translating research results at the grassroot level for the farmers’ benefit, for community empowerment and sustainable livelihood of rural poor.
The name suggested for the proposed consortium is ‘NGO Association for Agricultural Research in the Asia-Pacific (NAARAP)’. A major goal of the Consortium will be to develop strategic partnership with APAARI and GFAR in the conduct of ARD. The operational modalities were also discussed aiming at resource mobilization, coordination mechanism and reorienting research agenda to address the Millennium Development Goals. It is our expectation that NAARAP will soon emerge as a viable institution to link science with society.
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