CGIAR Central Asia and the Caucasus

Future Strategy

The CGIAR Program for CAC has made good progress during the last 9 years. It has catalyzed NARS for reorientation of their research agenda and established better interface among CG Centers as well as scientific institutions in the CAC region. It has also built much needed human resource and helped considerably in capacity building. The future strategy would demand the following:

Strengthening Partnerships

Further strengthening of CAC Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (CACAARI), as a neutral forum, is a true reflection of strong partnerships for R&D in the region. CACAARI is now building linkages with GFAR and other regional fora like AARINENA and APAARI. Involvement of other stakeholders such as farmers, NGOs, and private sector is critical for future success. Therefore, strengthening of partnerships will have to be ensured as we move forward. Also, the sustainability of these institutions will be a challenge, especially in an environment of declining support for agricultural R&D in the region.

Catalyzing the Policy Makers

In order to bring the agricultural research for development (ARD) agenda upfront, addressing the policy makers will be an important objective. Policy support will be critical both for strengthening NARS and for effective technology transfer. Earlier efforts through this program to bring together policy makers in a Ministerial Level Meeting held in June 2001 in Issyk-Kul proved useful in sensibilizing the Ministries for enhanced support to implement Issyk-Kul Declaration. In future, similar efforts will be needed for increased funding support by the host Governments and donors as well as greater role of IARCs, ARIs, NGOs, private sector and the farmers.

Knowledge Sharing

The CAC region is not only land locked but also knowledge locked in view of existing language barrier and the lack of ICT networking. The existing “digital divide” will have to be addressed on priority. Farmers demand access to information on reliable technologies, weather conditions, input availability, prevailing market prices as well as possible marketing opportunities. The CGIAR Program for CAC is addressing this concern to a certain extent through various publications, newsletters, leaflets and the program website providing details on new technological advancements as well as strengthened research partnerships.

Technology Transfer

During Soviet era, technology transfer followed the “top down” approach and had a unified system of command for implementation. Hence, once a decision taken by the policy makers, adoption and dissemination of technologies on large scale was quickly accomplished since technology related knowledge and required inputs were simultaneously made available and the instructions were followed by the farm workers having practically no role in decision making.

In the present context of transition from centralized to a decentralized system that should provide greater flexibility and independence to the farmers, a paradigm shift in the technology transfer mechanism to make it both “top down” as well as “bottom up” is indeed a challenge to the governments, farmers associations, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), research institutions and the private sector. Linkage mechanisms among the key stakeholders for technology transfer are at present mostly nonexistent. In view of the lack of extension services, the role of NARS to link “lab to land” or “scientists to farmers” through on-farm demonstrations, field visits, traveling workshops, participatory research etc. becomes most relevant in addressing this concern.

Also linkages of research projects with those of development oriented programs will accelerate the transfers of technologies (ToT), involving key stakeholders, especially NGOs. Scientific institutions can provide much needed technical backstopping to the NGO community for taking new technologies to the end users. For availability of inputs and marketing, private sector initiatives will be important, including support by the Government for needed incentives to the resource poor farmers, especially in the context of crop diversification, natural resource conservation and enhanced benefits to both producers and consumers.