Innovative Agricultural Research Policy Learning And Development: A Case Study Of Agricultural System For Technology Transfer In Pakistan

Abstract

Present research study aimed to understand the significance of agricultural research and need for innovative agricultural research policy to streamline the global objective of sustainable agricultural development and technology transfer through research based extension system. The study highlighted major weaknesses in agricultural research system without policy implications and suggested important factors to be focused in innovative agricultural research policy. The need for innovative agricultural research is inevitable for transforming the existing research culture. The study attempted to address major agricultural research related issues in Pakistan at national level for formulation of comprehensive agricultural research policy according to the needs of all stakeholders for sustainable agricultural development. This study was conducted at national level and all four provinces, federal capital (Islamabad), Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) were selected as study area for data collection. The 24 districts were selected using proportionate sampling and from each district 10 researchers were interviewed. The total sample of the study was 240 respondents. Four responses were considered incomplete. Hence, the final s[1]ample size for quantitative analysis was 236 researchers as respondents. In addition, 10 researchers from the capital, Islamabad were selected for qualitative data analysis. A comprehensive and detailed questionnaire was prepared for each major objective of the study with thorough discussion of the agriculture extension experts. The data were analyzed by using SPSS in order to obtain the desired results. The major conclusions of the study were that current agricultural research system has been failed to transform the existing research culture on modern foundation. Competencies of researchers on innovative ideas in current research system were not up to the mark. Therefore an innovative agricultural research policy must be developed for technology transfer to the farmers to fulfill the future demands of agriculture sector especially related to resource conservation, resource utilization, climate change adaptation and food security.