Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
19
Future Needs for Teaching, Research,
Extension, and Outreach
S.G. Solaiman , PhD, PAS and G.F.W. Haenlein , PhD
KEY TERMS
Teaching—activities that impart skill or knowledge using structured syllabi, assignments, and examinations.
Research — fi nding facts in a systematic and scientifi c manner.
Outreach—reaching out to promote science and technology to the community.
Extension—a coordinated framework that can lead to changes in farm practices.
Livestock production system—a subset of farming systems where animal, crop, and land interact and are unique for
different regions of the world.
Search engine—an electronic program that retrieves documents and fi les from databases on the Internet.
Agricola—a search engine containing bibliography of the National Agricultural Library.
PubMed—a collection of bibliographic sources of the National Library of Medicine.
PubMed Central—a collection of information related to the National Institute of Health and collaborators.
Google — most popular Web - based search engine.
OBJECTIVES
By completing this chapter, the reader will acquire knowledge on:
•
The availability or the lack of instructional materials
•
The availability or the lack of solid scientifi c data on different basic or production information
•
The availability or the lack of outreach information
•
The availability or the lack of solid information collected for extension activities
•
The areas lacking the most scientifi c data
•
Importance of livestock production systems and their specialization for each region of the world
•
Importance of data dissemination
•
Constraints of goat production, research, and outreach
INTRODUCTION
Goat and goat farming historically originated in the Middle
East (Ganji Dareh, Iran, Mesopotamia) more than 10,000
years ago (about 8000 BC) and then spread throughout the
world, east to China and India, west to Europe, south to
Africa, and later to America. Although the goat was the
fi rst domesticated ruminant livestock compared to cattle or
sheep, it lags behind those species in research and develop-
ment as indicated throughout the chapters of this topic.
Several researchers during the past few years have
attempted to summarize the accomplishments in research
and outreach related to goats (Haenlein, 2001; Sahlu and
Goetsch, 2005; Boyazoglu et al., 2005) and to demonstrate
areas of research and outreach that need more attention in
359
