| Introduction
Oxford Dictionary defines outreach research as the
activity of an organization that provides a service
or advice to people in the community, especially those
who can not or are unlikely to come to an office for
help. Similar to this, outreach research (OR) refers
to a combination of technology generation, verification,
and service activities conducted by researchers in collaboration
with extension personnel coupled with concerned stakeholders'
active involvement with end users. Thus OR activities
assist extension personnel to disseminate technologies
and provide feedback to researchers to identify researchable
problems and potentiality of various sectors of agro-
ecological domains. In the changed context, as I/NGOs
and private sectors are also proceeding forward proactively
to generate and disseminate viable technologies among
end users through adaptive and participatory R &
D process, it has, therefore, become imperative for
OR division to put more emphasis on establishing strong
linkage with I/NGOs, CBOs, and private sectors for working
conductively in collaboration and coordination with
them by providing technologies suitable for different
agro-ecological domains in the country. Previously outreach
research division (ORD) was also accountable for studying
socio-economics, policy, and gender related issues,
but realizing the significance of these issues, Nepal
Agricultural Research Council (NARC) has recently established
a Socio-economics and Agriculture Research Policy Division
(SARPOD). Presently ORD has been coordinating outreach
research activities in more than 50 OR sites under the
command areas of Regional/Agricultural Research Stations
(R/ARS) in various agro-ecological domains across the
country. Besides, disciplinary divisions under National
Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) and National
Animal Science Research Institute (NASRI) are also conducting
various activities related to client's problems under
their own environment and ORD is coordinating the activities
as per need.
ORD has been working with the concept of participatory
technology development (PTD), which is an interactive
and actor oriented approach consisting of researchers,
extensionists, farmers, community based organizations,
and user communities. It is a practical process of bringing
together the knowledge and research capacity of concerned
stakeholders both from public and private sectors in
an interactive way. Researchers involved in agriculture
in Nepal have helped pioneer some of these processes
through farming systems research, action research, participatory
plant breeding, and a wide range of other PTD approaches
over years. The impacts of such activities have been
reflected wide scale scaling up of new technologies
in farmers' level across the country. The overall effects
of PTD have been centered to increase agriculture productivity
as a whole.
Emerging alternatives and new actors both in the public
and private sectors are involved in agricultural research
and technology development in the country. In the present
scenario, changes have been taking place with regard
to socio-economics, institutional context of R &
D, and funding sources as well. Therefore, ORD should
take a lead role with respect to PTD, information technology
management, research collaboration, and co-ordination
encompassing a wide range of new partners to make technology
development and diffusion more relevant and effective.
Chronological Development of Outreach Research
in Nepal
1960's Initiation of Farmers' Field Trials (FFTs) from
Parwanipur Agricultural Centre
1972 Beginning of minikits distribution by crop commodity
programs
1977 Establishment of National Cropping Systems Program
(NCSP)
1985 National Cropping Systems Program renamed into
Farming Systems Research and Development Division (FSRDD)
1985 Opening of OR sites under different R/ARS and commodity
programs for establishing Farming Systems Research (FSR)
sites
1985 Establishment of Socio-economic Research and Extension
Division (SERED)
1987 Issuance of policy guidelines for outreach research
i.e. formal initiation of outreach research in Nepal
1992 Formation of Co-ordination and Special Project
Division (CSPD)
1995 Establishment of Outreach Research Division (ORD)
2004 Formation of Socio-economics and Agricultural Policy
Research Division (SARPoD)
Objective
The mandate of ORD is to plan, coordinate and strengthen
outreach research programs at the national level. ORD
initiates central level work plan, operational strategies,
and various support activities related to PTD. ORD supports
R/ARS for monitoring and evaluation of PTD activities.
Output and purpose
The major outputs envisioned by ORD are to help achieve
the goal "improved livelihoods of people through
outreach research activities" and purpose "outreach
research better address priority clients' research requirements".
However, the specific outputs of the division are as
follows:
- Improved linkage and coordination among multiple
stakeholders pertaining to PTD in the country for
increasing efficiency in resource use through resource
sharing systems
- Institutionalization of priority clients' participation
in all stages of research & development viz; planning,
execution, monitoring, & evaluation of on-farm
research activities
- Central level coordination for demand-led agriculture,
fishery, horticulture, and livestock technologies
developed for various agro-climatic domains
Activities
The following activities of ORD help attain the above
outputs and purposes:
- to organize national outreach research workshop
in alternate year and National Technical Working Group
(NTWG) meeting once a year
- to monitor and evaluate on-farm research projects
- to update on-farm research methodology from time
to time
- to coordinate on-farm research at the national
level
- to coordinate NARC disciplinary divisions to conduct
on-farm research activities in Khumal command area
- to provide outreach support activities to different
R/ARS, commodity programs, GOs, and I/NGOs: participatory
on farm research, planning, monitoring, and evaluation
of OR programs
- to facilitate multidisciplinary approaches for
addressing farmers' problems effectively by interacting
with concerned multiple stakeholders and
- to facilitate scaling up of proven technologies.
Some Achievement
OR in the centre has facilitated the uptake and up-scaling
of technologies due to which:
- mass distribution of minikits during 70's popularized
many crop varieties extensively in farmers' field
that helped increase productivity
- introduction of early (Chaite) rice in irrigated
pockets of hills, river basin, and Terai areas made
double cropping of rice possible by substantially
increasing rice production
- improved livestock and poultry breeds distributed
across the country increased milk and animal products
- fish farming has turned to be a profitable business
in many Terai districts because of training and support
to the fish farmers
- extensive testing of apple varieties, temperate
fruits, and vegetables in high hill districts such
as Jumla, Dolpa, and Mustang has increased their production
- off-season vegetable production in the road accessible
areas of mid hills has boosted the economy of small
farmers and helped reduce rural poverty. In peri-urban
areas of the country there is a glut of year round
vegetables production.
- More than 50 outreach research sites have been
established in different agro-ecological and socioeconomic
domains across the country where on farm participatory
research activities are being conducted leading to
dissemination of improved technologies.
- A system has been established for generation and
scaling up of technologies by providing linkage and
coordination among concerned stakeholders.
- Institutionalization of research processes such
as Village Level Workshops, Planning & Coordination
Meetings, and Technical Working Group Meetings in
regional and national level.
Researchers
Contact Address
Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC)
Outreach Research Division (ORD)
Khumaltar, Lalitpur, Nepal
PO Box 3605, Kathmandu
Tel: +977-1-5540817 Fax:
+977-1-5527695
Email: ord@narc.gov.np
Website: www.narc.org.np
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