Monday, April 27, 2009

NGO Association for Agricultural Research formed

A new NGO consortium aiming to reorient agricultural research to more adequate respond to the needs of small farmers was formed following the Asia Pacific Regional Workshop on Agricultural Research for Development (ARD) organized jointly by ANGOC, Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) and the Global Forum for Agricultural Research (GFAR) in Bangkok, Thailand last 16-18 April 2008. The NGO group is called NGO Association for Agriculture Research in Asia-Pacific, or NAARAP.

A major goal of NAARAP is to engage with APAARI, GFAR and other international and global actors to facilitate a change in the orientation of agricultural research for development (ARD), particularly by adopting a systems approach where Smallholder Farmers Organizations (SFOs) and CSOs can play integral roles in determining the direction, content and conduct of ARD. The newly formed NGO Consortium came up with a plan of action that would promote the empowerment of small farmholders and orient agricultural research systems (ARS), both at the national and international levels, towards involving them and their partner NGOs actively in all research initiatives and use the knowledge and expertise of successful farmers in each area for replication after these have been vetted scientifically.