Contract research program - Bangladesh agricultural research council : an external review

Special evaluation covers the period l980-4/83 and is based on document review, site visits, and interviews with researchers. CRP has funded 62 projects, on soils (8), irrigation and water management (15), economics and social science (10), crops and forestry (14), agricultural engineering (10), and animals (5). Several of these are interinstitutional efforts. CRP has helped to stimulate and encourage research, provided valuable experience in research planning and management, and led to recognition of BARC as a leading national agency for agricultural research. Although CRP has increased interinstitutional linkages, much more can be done in this regard. Funds for 4 of the engineering projects have not been utilized due to lack of cooperative planning. The irrigation and water management projects lack common objectives, and a project on pulses, while it has collected valuable germplasm and identified some promising inoculants, has evinced little institutional cooperation. Cropping systems projects, on the other hand, have been a good example of cooperative research planning and management. BARC should increase field trial collaboration in all its projects. In other areas, it appears the soils projects will yield valuable information about fertilizer needs in Bangladesh, but more attention is needed to setting long-term research goals and a single soil testing/leaf analysis laboratory should be developed. Projects investigating dry-season use of rainfall, soil moisture, and the high water table show great promise and economic potential, while evapo-transpiration projects show little. Procedures for selecting and monitoring CRP projects are generally good, but the selection process should be modified to better identify research having major potential economic impact. Also, an inventory of Bangladesh's total agricultural research program, by institution, should be available when project selections are made and BARC should: institute a system for periodic peer review of the total CRP; establish an Agricultural Research Information Center; strengthen its agricultural engineering staff; and initiate an annual research conference.