The role of research in agriculture

The significance of eating in a person's life has recently been discussed. It should be noted that following the Second World War and the green revolution movement, industrial agriculture grew in importance in America and other European nations since they realized that without food security, nothing is feasible.

This problem, together with the scarcity of cultivable land, has made boosting R&D the greatest way to advance agriculture as an industry. In the last 20 years, average income in developing nations has significantly increased. In spite of the fact that R&D costs manifest in the form of invention, technical advancements, and technology, economists reveal that this growth is related to increasing human resources, capital availability, and particularly technical development. As a result, today's countries are focusing on R&D and attracting external researches to gradually increase their economic capacity and produce more products. The presence of exceptional R&D in agriculture is dependent on wise investing due to the variety in production functions and economic growth models, which have real-world implications on not only social and economic nation structures but also on investor attraction. In this way, two avenues for production become open:

1) More production factors should be used to make up for the water shortage.

2) Using more cutting-edge techniques where "efficiency" is taken into account and referred to as a necessary element in boosting the supply of agriculture.

Agriculture requires extensive study in order to advance; knowledge must be presented in the form of an R&D plan and then flow into production in its technical form. Every country has its own production limitations, thus research and development plans are crucial in light of the fact that as input efficiencies rise, crop productivity in agriculture declines. Since no essential component of agriculture production exists, its substitution is theoretically required to cut costs. On the other hand, indiscriminate use of water and land resources has been caused by population development and an increase in food demand.

Based on agricultural outputs, either the policy of expanding the cultivable area should be used, or the efficiency of inputs should be increased. Restrictions on agricultural fields limit the first option, while investments in research and the generation of the necessary knowledge facilitate the latter. Agriculture-related studies and innovations lead to higher productivity. In Iran, 168 official institutions and 28 private organisations have been operating for the past three decades. According to research from the International Food Policy Research Institute, Iran ranked second among its neighbours by 2008, which highlights the significance of R&D development in Iran

Supporting Sustainable Agriculture Through Research

Declines in soil or water quality are two important signs of agricultural system decline. Farm productivity quickly declines as a result of improper management of either of these resources. Therefore, there is a pressing need for research to develop more sustainable methods of managing soil and water resources.

Tropical regions are home to a sizable part of the world's developing nations. Tropical agricultural systems differ significantly, both physically and institutionally, from temperate agricultural systems. The distinctive qualities of tropical habitats, such as their highlands, arid rangelands, and wet forests, played significant roles in the committee's selection of the most pressing problems that required further study.

In the tropics, particularly in areas with limited access to fossil fuel resources, management solutions must be more biological in character and rely on the utilization of suitable germplasm, cropping systems, and methodologies to fit certain ecological niches. Many techniques used in the tropics were refined through time via trial and error; they differ substantially between various cultural and geographical contexts. Attempts to adapt research methods developed in temperate regions for use in tropical settings frequently fall short of recognizing these essential distinctions. At the same time, parallel systems in the industrialized world do not always function in the same way or follow the same logic as various social institutions, family patterns, resource access, and tenure ties in developing nations. On a particular water resource or parcel of land, for instance, indigenous, colonial, and modern systems of resource access and control may coexist, though frequently in conflict. The choice of research priorities must take into account these fundamental distinctions between tropical and temperate agriculture.

The following research could yield significant benefits in support of sustainable agriculture and natural resource management, given the challenges faced by tropical agriculture, the distinctive qualities of the environments and cultures, and the strengths and weaknesses of the current knowledge base.

Indigenous people have a wealth of time-tested wisdom, and this human resource should be used to further these objectives. The fusion of conventional techniques with contemporary advances holds unique possibilities. The challenge of explaining new concepts to farmers is one of the most challenging issues that still has to be solved. This topic has long been a source of contention for research and development organizations, and it still ranks highly on their priority list.

Considering Social and Cultural Dimensions

Most people involved in research and development for developing countries now agree that research—if it is to be of practical value—must incorporate social, cultural, and economic factors as well as technical and scientific ones. Just as a particular soil management strategy must match a particular soil, so must it match the people who will be responsible for implementing it. But actually accomplishing this goal is difficult. Agricultural scientists often lack the training, experience, and time to integrate such factors into their research.

Actively incorporating these dimensions into research and its applications requires a shift in the model common in developed country agriculture, where the researcher does the science and passes the product to the extension agent, who, in turn, conveys the information to the farmer. This unidirectional approach was successful in the United States in part because the scientists and extension agents involved typically had farm backgrounds—they instinctively knew the social, cultural, and economic constraints at issue because the environment (both bio and social) was a familiar one. As the distance between farmer and researcher grows, however, the greater is the need for a different model of communication. The knowledge, experience, and capabilities of the local people must be incorporated into the research process so it is, in essence, a joint endeavor. A collaborative approach is necessary, with mechanisms for feedback and refinement of the research plan. Although this need for a more interactive approach to research has been discussed widely and for some time, it is still a significant constraint on the effectiveness of research in support of agriculture, particularly efforts to develop sustainable agricultural strategies. Consequently, the committee wishes to emphasize the need for serious, continued attention to the social and cultural dimensions of research pursuits. In the end, this may be one of our most important findings.

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