Agricultural development is related closely to increasing factor productivity. Consequently the productivity and performance of agricultural research and extension are of central, strategic concern in the process of agricultural development. The World Bank, in its concern for economic development, and for agricultural development in particular, will need to continue to be concerned about the availability, generation, and diffusion of new agricultural technology in Asia. This paper reviews the performance of agricultural research and extension in Asia. Given the increasing pressures for performance and technological innovation at the farm level, a faster-moving, more interdependent world, and a time when governments increasingly are strapped for resources, institutional modernization needs to begin now to deal with the issues of relevance, responsiveness and cost-effectiveness of research and extension. Imperative reactions to these issues include: client ownership and responsibility to gain accountability; competition within the public sector and between the public and private sectors; and pluralism, not single dimension solutions, in delivery approaches to research and extension needs. Beneficiaries should be expected to support, in part if not in whole, research and extension services. Downsizing must take place in public sector institutions to husband public resources for those activities the private sector clearly will not do. Lastly, public research and extension personnel will need to have personal stakes in how farmers view their performance.

Text in English