sustained public sector role in funding agricultural research will be essential, particularly for production areas in less favorable environments that the private sector is unlikely to serve (World Bank, undated).

The challenge for CWANA countries is not to develop new agricultural technologies (such as plant breeding techniques or disease diagnostics) but to design and implement the capacity-building programs and regulatory systems needed to facilitate the sustainable transfer and adaptation of these technologies to the relevant farming systems (Dhlamini, 2006).

Technology transfer

One of the lessons of the Green Revolution was that agricultural technology could be transferred internationally, especially to countries that had sufficient national agricultural research capacity to adapt the imported high-yielding cultivars to suit local production environments (FAO, 2002). Advances in agricultural technology hold great promise, but the full benefits of scientific breakthroughs will not be realized unless the new technologies are properly disseminated and CWANA farmers adopt them successfully. Concerted and systematic efforts to transfer new technologies should incorporate participatory approaches as well as a clear assessment of users and beneficiaries.

Public engagement

Evidence has shown that public engagement is identified as an important precondition for the appropriate and successful transfer of new, modern technology (Gender Advisory Board, 2004), as farmers in resource-poor areas are innovators and adapters (Chambers et al., 1989). Indeed, technology transfer strategies that have proved successful in CWANA countries have used a community approach and direct farmer participation. Thus technologies can be transferred through extensive programs of on-farm demonstrations, where local extension services play a vital role (Haddad, 2004).

Knowledge transfer

Because new technologies are more demanding for both the farmer and the extension agent, they require more information and skills for successful adoption than did the initial adoption of modern varieties and fertilizers. A bottom-up information flow combined with adaptive, location-specific research is particularly important in transferring complex crop-management technologies (World Bank, undated). While transferring new technologies, it is important to recognize and take into account the social status of recipients as well as employment patterns and cultural norms in the community. In the context of transferring “controversial” technologies, such as biotechnology, it should also be recognized that farmers and communities may have knowledge that will affect decisions on how the technology is used in the local context (Gender Advisory Board, 2004). At present, there is widespread distrust of biotechnology, and the public needs to be engaged in dialogue before it is disseminated widely (ADB, 2001). The public should be made aware of the potential risks, harm and benefits of new technologies being transferred and given opportunity to discuss them. It is also important to inform communities about the

service level they would require for the technology they may want to use. Communities should especially have a clear understanding of long-term costs and maintenance implications, so that they can choose what is most appropriate for them under their budget constraints (World Bank, undated). All these aspects should be clearly explained to the public at all levels in terms that are understandable and relevant to local farmers (USAID, 2005).

Technology adoption

Experience has shown that a number of key conditions help maximize the benefits of a growing agriculture sector for poor people by facilitating the adoption process of modern agricultural technology.

Good governance

Good governance is crucial to ensure that new agricultural technology reaches the poor (ADB, 2001). In each CWANA country, successful local adoption of innovations from others will depend on incentives and barriers producers face. In addition to investment in technology generation and transfer, significant policy and governance reform is required to ensure that the poor in CWANA benefit most from greater investment and higher agricultural productivity. The increasing importance of new, knowledge-intensive technology requires a market-friendly environment for adopting and adapting new technologies and removing restrictions on technology imports, which must be encouraged through continued progress in economic liberalization. Alongside favorable macroeconomic and trade policies, good infrastructure and access to credit, land and markets must be in place. Equitable conditions give farmers incentive to adopt new and sustainable technologies and diversify production into higher-value crops—actions that raise incomes and lift households out of poverty (World Bank, undated). Decentralization of existing extension service structures that encourage a bottom-up flow from farmers to extension and research will also help farmers cope with the additional complexity of efficiency-enhancing technology, as local governments are usually more knowledgeable about rural agricultural needs and adept in dealing with them.

Dissemination in a package

Exploiting the growth potential of staple crops from dissemination of modern technology requires not only investment but also changes in farm management and a transition from current farming traditions to more modern systems. Since the returns to technology adoption are low if modern inputs are used in isolation and not supplemented by other technologies, modern technology needs to be disseminated in a well-defined package of technologies and services to be successful in the field (World Bank, undated). Farmer surveys of successful technology adoption experiences from Jordan indicate that farmers prefer accepting new technologies as packages, rather than accepting only one component at a time (Haddad, 2004). However, in practice, components of a promising package could be taken up in a piecemeal, stepwise manner, where the sequence of adoption would be determined by factor scarcities and the potential cost savings achieved, as was often the case in disseminating and adopting Green Revolution technologies (FAO, 2002).