Livelihoods, institutions and the small farmer - Institutional Constraints to Small Farmer Development in Southern Africa - page 295

The foregoing realities call for long-term engagement of research, extension and training
expertise. A systems approach is needed which will allow for investments in all the relevant
aspects of agricultural development to be coordinated simultaneously. This approach
recognizes that higher education can play a strong role in agricultural development if it
is linked to well-focused, development-oriented research and extension. One of the most
significant shortcomings of the educational system is that the current curriculum for
training of agricultural specialists does not equip them adequately to function effectively
in the kind of participatory contexts that are necessary to engage the local farmers and tap
the rich indigenous knowledge they possess (Chitsike et al. , 2009). This is what collective
innovation entails. The current rural development context of Southern Africa, or at least
South Africa, makes this imperative. Since the mid-1980s, agricultural development
literature has given prominence to the idea of integrating research, extension and training
within a function system that ensures that the curriculum is made more relevant to the
needs of the beneficiary communities. Such an idea has been promoted under various labels
such as 'Agricultural Knowledge System , 'Agricultural-Knowledge Information System , and
'Agricultural Knowledge Triangle' (Eicher, 1999).

For many years, the International Centre for development-oriented Research in Agriculture
(ICRA) based in the Netherlands, has promoted the idea of collective innovation as part
of the concept of 'Agricultural Research for Development' (ARD). In 2004, the South
African government invited the International Centre for development-oriented Research
in Agriculture (ICRA), to provide capacity building through the Agricultural Research
Council of South Africa (ARC) to institutionalize the concept through simultaneously
developing curricula and training teaching staff to deliver more appropriate material in 5
participating Agricultural Faculties in 5 Universities, namely the University of Fort Hare,
the University of Limpopo, University of Venda, the University of Free State, and the
University of Kwazulu-Natal. The first 4-year phase of this support has ended in 2009 and
a new phase focusing on curriculum development will commence in 2010.

The questions that could be posed in this respect are: 'Why collective innovation as part
of Agricultural Education and Training?' and 'How does it contribute to speeding up the
pace of agrarian reform in the region, or specifically South Africa?'

Some of the most frequent arguments around which the ARD proponents have tried to
market it include the fact that it is crucial to:
• Integrating the perspectives, knowledge and actions of different stakeholders around a

common theme.

• Integrating the learning by stakeholders from working together.

• Integrating analysis, action and change across the different (environmental, social,

economic) 'dimensions' of development.