Priority themes in Tropical America for agricultural/forestry development: importance of networking
The main potential advantages of networking, for agricultural, agroforestry and forestry development in Tropical Latin America, are: 1) synergy and complementarity among national research institutions; 2) imrpovement of the bargaining position of producers; 3) support for biotechnology development; 4) protection of germplasm and intellectual property rights; 5) upgrading postgraduate education; 6) recognition of institutional capabilities; and 7) exchanging and managing information. The main limitations to networking in the region are: 1) weak national information transfer structures, 2) slow development/adoption of electronic media, 3) inappropriate choice of network activities; 4) low network sustainability due to weak commitments from members; 5) inflexibility of networks; 6) dispersal of participants (larger countries); and 7) insufficient donor coordination. Eight research/development priorities are suggested for the region: 1) accelerated recovery of degraded pastures (e.g., using agroforestry and forestry technologies); 2) policy issues, regulations and practices that affect land use (e.g., impact of reforestation incentives); 3) increased quality of products (e.g., "organic" markets/"green" labelling and certification criteria), 4) development and massification of biotechnology and biocontrol techniques (e.g., coffee or cocoa shade systems); 5) demand and quality requirements (i.e., market intelligence and prospection) along with the development, valuation and marketing of new products, goods or services (e.g., certified tradeable offsets [CTO's], water, recreation); 6) diversified sustainable use of natural resources in flexible production systems that can adapt to changing market prices and other demands (e.g., timber-coffee combinations, annual crops and fruit trees); 7) silviculture of secondary forests (bio-physical and socio-economic analyses); and 8) protection of improved and natural germplasm, and intellectual property rights.
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | biblioteca |
| Published: |
Viena (Austria)
2000
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| Subjects: | AGROFORESTERIA, EXTENSION, DESARROLLO AGRICOLA, PLANIFICACION, REDES DE INVESTIGACION, CATIE, AMERICA TROPICAL, |
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