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Strengthening the Role of University for Indonesia’s Agricultural

Development

Yusman SyaukatFaculty of Economics and Management

Bogor Agricultural UniversityBogor, Indonesia

International SeminarFEM IPB & Indonesian Embassy at Rome

Bogor, 6 December 2011

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The Role of University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. In addition to their existing roles in education and research, in many countries, a university has its ”third role”, i.e. to take on economic development mandatesIn general, the mission of many universities is education, research and extension.

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Agricultural UniversitiesThere are about 1,600 agricultural universities in World Bank client countries, including both independent agricultural universities and agricultural or agriculture-related faculties within general universities. Though varying widely in size, program type, and development level, agricultural universities are central to sustainable agricultural knowledge and informationAgricultural Universities are part of the national education system, and at the same time they are part of the national research system.

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University Roles in Research Systems

1) National Research: A university might assume full responsibility for public sector agricultural research, establishing a national agricultural research institute (NARI) within the university.

2) Basic Research: A university might focus on basic and strategic research, leaving applied and adaptive research to other institutions.

3) Regional Research: A university might conduct adaptive and applied research to support development in a province or agro-ecological zone, possibly specializing in research on a commodity or agricultural problem important to the region.

4) Consultant Services: Universities provide consultant services to support research by NARIs, non governmental organizations (NGOs), international agencies, and commercial firms.

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Agricultural Universities Challenges

Providing relevant training for future agricultural scientists, Defining institutional roles in relation to general universities, Establishing structures and funding procedures for research and extension, Drafting research agendas, Providing adequate staff incentives, Improving program relevance, and Creating roles in extension.

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Role of Agricultural University

World Bank (2002) stresses the important role universities play in creating and disseminating knowledge, building professional capacity, and reducing poverty. In developing countries about half of the agricultural scientists work in the universities About 25 percent of the time of faculty in universities is devoted to research, and the remainder is shared among teaching, supervising postgraduate students and consulting.

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Role of Agricultural University (2)

There is the need to dispel the notion of an ‘ivory tower” and bring universities closer to the people and the problems they face. UNESCO (1998): The curricula of universities have to be sensitive to the

needs of rural people; Studies and research should be designed to answer

problems faced by rural people; Appropriate technologies must be developed, locally-tested,

adapted and disseminated; and Universities must serve as “resource centers” for rural

communities

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Role of Agricultural University (3)

An arrangement by which university students go to the communities and carry out development projects provide a two-way interaction whereby:– The communities are exposed to modern science and

technology – The students learn about rural socio-economy and

constraints to rural development.

By so doing universities move from mere academic training to providing holistic development training for students who would identify with the rural areas during their working life.

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Innovation & Agriculture World Bank (2007): An innovation system is “a network of organizations, enterprises and individuals focused on bringing new products, new processes, and new forms of organization into social and economic use, together with the institutions and policies that affect their performance and use”.In agriculture, innovation can include new knowledge or technologies related to primary production, processing, and commercialization – all of which can positively affect the productivity, competitiveness, and livelihoods of farmers and others. Innovation can be developed for adoption or it can evolve endogenously from the system.

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Innovation & Agricultural GrowthThe knowledge economy places emphasis on management of knowledge for creating innovations needed to improve human livelihood.Agricultural growth is needed to rise incomes in order to improve the livelihoods of the rural poor. Agricultural growth has been driven largely by agricultural productivity growth which depends upon availability of technologies in the value chains and how innovations in production, processing, and marketing are organized . The adoption of science-based technology can substantially accelerate growth in agriculture. This high quality scientific work requires highly trained persons with good equipment and other resources.

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Agricultural University: R&DUniversities with their pool of highly trained human resources, equipment and other resources are being called upon to play a bigger role in agricultural research and technology development and building professional capacity for managing the food and agriculture systemAgricultural programs at universities in developing countries need to improve in quality, and relevance, and need to get massively scaled up to facilitate the growth opportunities in agriculture and address the sustainability challenges around natural resource management. These opportunities and challenges are fascinating for today’s university students and need to be communicated to them to also raise the attractiveness of higher education in agriculture.

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Agricultural Focus: Poverty

Without agricultural and rural development it will be impossible to make meaningful progress towards the achievement of the MDGs of halving hunger and poverty by 2015. World hunger and poverty can only be reduced if agricultural innovation is intensified through the development of new technologies and their dissemination to farmers for adoption.

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Problems of Agriculture and Agricultural Universities

The major constraints to agricultural development include absence of appropriate technologies and lack of innovations for increasing productivity and growth.Although there is a high demand for innovations for agricultural development from universities, agriculture is becoming less attractive to studentsFor many students, agriculture has become last resort when they are not accepted for professional studies like medicine, pharmacy, and engineering.

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Requirements for Alleviating the Problems…

World hunger and poverty problems can only be reduced if agricultural innovation is intensified through the development of new technologies and their dissemination to farmers for adoption. To achieve this objective, increase investment in agriculture by national governments and international agencies is necessary condition:

To increase interest in agriculture -- to attract the potential talents (students and scholars)To increase public and private sector jobs To increase profitability of agricultural activities

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Agricultural Research in Indonesia

Agricultural researches are conducted by many institutions - universities, ministries and other research institutions - with no good (lack of) coordinationInternational Agencies has relatively small contribution in agricultural research in IndonesiaIn addition to the development of new technologies to yield new products and increase productivity, social and economic research are required to help the farmers in adopting those technologies and to improve the livelihoods of society

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Agricultural Research Coordination

Development of Research Agenda and

its ImplementationUniversity

International Agencies

MOA, MOF, MOMF

Research Institute

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IPB’s Role in Agricultural Development

IPB is the only Agricultural University in the country with its various capabilities in agricultural sectorIPB has responsibility in advancing agricultural development:Educating human resources and Developing agricultural development programs to

counter the problems of the country: hunger and poverty

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FEM-IPB Potential Contribution FEM vision : the leader for sustainable developmentThe objective of sustainable development is mainly poverty alleviationWith its diverse capability – economic development, management, agribusiness, agricultural economics, resource and environmental economics, and Islamic economics – FEM could contribute to agricultural development FEM has actively engaged in local, regional and national economic development Cooperation with National Government and International Agencies could improve our community engagement and economic development activitiesFEM invites FAO, IFAD and WFP to work together to make contribution in alleviating the problems of hunger and poverty

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Thank Youysyaukat@gmail.com