LESSONS LEARNED - Science for Agriculture and Rural Development in Low-income Countries - page 106

some cases, tools developed for scientists (e.g., an expert system for quantifying
nutrient balances and optimizing fertilizer management; or regional land use optimi-
zation models) have been converted into simpler tools for use by extension workers
(such as field guides) or have been supplemented by well-structured user interfaces
that allow interactive use by planners and/or facilitate communication between
scientists and other stakeholders.
The spectrum of applications has been wide. On the one hand, tools have been
applied to illustrate resource requirements for realization of different sets of regional
development goals and targets, conflicts between targets and resource availability,
identification of technical constraints, trade-offs between different development
goals and promising directions for interventions at farm or regional level. These
applications have contributed to widening the perspectives of the different stakeholders
on sustainable development. On the other hand, for scientists, these analyses, inclu-
ding their documentation, have improved skills to deal with complex problems in an
interdisciplinary manner, and to identify knowledge gaps. For farmers, planners and
other stakeholders it has increased insight into the economic and environmental
consequences of different land use strategies and stimulated informed discussions on
land use options among different interest groups. Introduction of new techniques
(such as expert systems and GIS) and capacity building of National Agricultural
Research Systems in using these tools have increased the demands of local planning
authorities for their application in the local context. A very positive development has
been the ample spill-over effects, reflected in the use of the tools in many national
programmes.
Evaluation of expert systems and farm and regional land use analysis models and
discussion of results with and by stakeholders has also resulted in a demand for a
multi-scale approach to identify better and more feasible solutions. One of the gaps
identified was insufficient attention for capacity building in understanding the
concepts of new techniques and interpretation of results. Development of skills in
these areas should be well-balanced with capacity building directed at transfer of
technical skills. Furthermore, projects engaged in developing tools to support land
use decisions require that a broad spectrum of expertise is represented to clearly
delimit and communicate the capabilities of the tools and their limitations.
CONCLUSIONS
The following eight lessons for future research were extracted.
Lesson 1: Disciplinary science provides the basis
Initially, most activities were science-driven with a mono-disciplinary orientation.
This was necessary to increase insight into underlying processes. It provided the
basis for the various improved interdisciplinary research methods and tools needed
for and useful in the design and evaluation of higher-scale systems in a considerable
number of agro-ecological zones and for (future-oriented) scenario studies. It is
important to continue strengthening the bases of disciplinary knowledge, while