This World Bank-financed
project will increase the efficiency of the
National Agricultural Research System (NARS). It
will achieve its objective through: (a) improving
research organization and management; (b)
supporting priority research programs on
promising areas; (c) strengthening client
orientation; and (d) improving research resource
allocation.
Bangladesh's NARS is coordinated by the
Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC).
In addition to BARC, the project is working with
seven of the NARS institutions, including the
Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI).
Agrodev, as a sub-contractor to Winrock
International, provided an economist, an
aquaculture engineering specialist and two
farming systems research and development
specialists.
The Economist (i) prepared fisheries economic
research programs, (ii) developed training
modules to identify economic performance and
indicators based on cost benefit and risk
analysis for monitoring critical factors of
aquaculture and fisheries management development,
(iii) established bench-mark profiles of the
major fisheries sub-sectors, and (iv) conducted
field level and national workshops on fisheries
economics studies.
The Aquaculture Engineering Specialist (i)
prepared, designed and initiated projects to
solve maricultre problems in the areas of sea
water supply, marine hatchery construction,
modern marine pond complex construction/
rehabilitation; (ii) set up a modern hatchery;
and (iii) assisted counterpart scientists
undertake relevant studies, organize workshops,
initiate and implement the research program.
The two Farming Systems Research and Development
Specialists reviewed and evaluated Bangladesh
Agricultural University's Farming Systems
Research and Development (FSRD) Programme. They
reviewed farming systems research and development
activities coordinated by BARC to assess their
impact on (i) area/extent of spread of
technology, (ii) cropping intensity, (iii)
productivity, (iv) income generation, (v) poverty
alleviation, (vi) employment, (vii) improvement
of nutrition, and (viii) the environment.
They also reviewed the appropriateness of the
strategic directions of the FSRD program and
assessed the strengths and weaknesses of its
research methodologies.
Recommendations and guidelines were developed to
enhance the effectiveness of BARC's research
program
|
|
Evaluating
the
impact
of
agriculture research
in
Bangladesh
|
