Return from Investment in agricultural education, research and outreach extension systems for development: Some policy guidelines in the context of Pacific island countries

Return from Investment in Higher Education, Research and Extension

Professor Abdul HalimDepartment of Agriculture

PNG University of TechnologyPapua New Guinea

[email protected]

Presentation Outline

• Return from investment in higher education, research and extension through Universities

• Experiences of PNG Unitech • Recommendations for policy guidelines

Agri. Knowledge and Information Diffusion Overtime

• Old China, Mesopotamia, Niles in Egypt, Indus in India and other continents

• Land Grant colleges in USA, Oxford and Cambridge, IAU and others are historical examples.

• University’s 3rd responsibility: Extension, Outreach, Adult Education, Community Dev., Rural Dev., Advisory Services, HRD, RLI etc. are the same in different nomenclatures

Investment in ERE4D Pays Off

• Increased productivity & production are related with investment

• 57 country studies synthesized by Evenson are examples

• Hayami and Kikuchi’s macro study - Philippines’ UPLB & IRRI’s contribution in rice production

• Halim’s micro study in 40 barrios of Laguna: Ext. & Edu. facilitate worker & allocative effects, respectively and their interaction effect is more sustainable

Return from Investment in Extension

• Extension’s rates of return 5-50 %in developing countries (AKAP), studies by Evenson

• Although some times “extension gaps”, “research gaps” and “science gaps” are there.

• Investment in other sectors as ICT facilitates to minimize the gaps depending on situations.

Pluralistic Agri. Extension Approach

• Pluralistic Extension Approach (PEA) evolved over time replacing Linear Extension Approaches (LEA) is more effective.

• PEA delivers information and knowledge for family livelihood improvement in the changed environments, which goes beyond agriculture.

• Non-agricultural sectors also benefit from extension information delivered through PEA.

Benefits of Higher Education & Research Through University System

• 3 types of benefits of higher education: private, social and research benefits. All these benefits are diffused to the farm, firms and society at large.

• Estimated private & social rate of return to university degree is about 15% in Australia (Jeff Borland et al).

• The involvement of staff and students in research and community services accelerates sustainable capacity building process.

The Third Function of a University: PNG Unitech

• The third function of a University which is “Extension” was started in one locality-Tumua in Markham valley as a case study in 2004.

• Under & post graduates students along with supervisors are involved in the process.

• South Pacific Institute for Sustainable Agriculture & Rural Development (SPISARD) of the School of Agriculture is mandated to manage this community services.

PNG University of Technology (contd.)

• Education-research-extension-training-demonstration activities are run as a package along with other stakeholders.

• The services of the faculties, students, private and public partners, village community are involved in AKAP process to build sustainable “knowledge triangle” in the society.

• An “Educational Institutional Approach” (EIA) for Rural Livelihood Improvement has been developed over time through experiences.

PNG University of Technology (contd.)

• Program extended to 74 villages in 4 regions educating about 3000 persons of whom 50% are women.

• The generic training and demonstration is on “Personal Viability and Livelihood Improvement” covers 21 specialized areas in crops, livestock, floriculture, aquaculture, food processing & value adding, health and nutrition, financial management, livelihood skills, book keeping etc.

PNG University of Technology (contd.)

• Cost sharing among the stakeholders with students and staff involvement in the process facilitated to make it cost effective.

• The estimated cost of training/person is kina 37-50 (Us$ 15-20) depending on duration and contents of training and demonstration.

• Entrepreneurs among rural youth is another achievement through students and staff of the university.

Lessons for other Pacific countries

• The package investment in higher education-research-extension and their interactions yields enormous benefits for sustainable knowledge based human capital in the society.

• This motivates staff, students, community and other partners for building knowledge society with minimum cost and time.

• Access to large cohort of youth for entrepreneurship is easy through university system.

Policy Recommendations

• Increased package allocation in education-research-extension- innovations through educational institutions is desirable with no budget cut, specially in isolated pacific island countries.

• Youth being a large cohort of population needs special consideration not only for development but also to bring peace and tranquillity in the society.

Policy Recommendations

• Public spending on research-extension-education in agriculture must be more than 2% of agricultural GDP.

• Research on policy for investment in agriculture sectors is needed for continuous updating and adjustments of country specific policies.

Pond at Dimbil VillagePonds containing 15000 fish (tilapia and carp) at Dimbil

village

Vegetable growing20 participants: 7 women and 13 men

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Adult literacy11 participants: 9 women and 2 men

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Cooking and BakingA total of 42 participants : 2 male and 40 female

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EDLEARN11 conference, Barcelona

Soap and Dishwashing paste25 participants: 16 women and 9 men

Sewing training25 participants: Lutheran Women’s Group

EDLEARN11 conference, Barcelona

An Entrepreneur at Mutzing village Markham valley