Project assistance completion report : management of agriculture research and technology (391-0489)

Pakistan"s agricultural research system, which MART supported, is now well-established and productive. Its main components are 4 provincial research institutes, 3 provincial universities, a national center (NARC) and an outlying federal institute (AZRI -- the Arid Zone Research Institute), coordinated by a national research council (PARC). These major institutions are also responsible for a large number of subcenters, field stations, and experimental farms. The system is well staffed and trained, with a core of extraordinary scientists in key disciplines supported by competent scientists in virtually all subjects. MART"s performance was mixed. The more straightforward areas (farming systems research [FSR], information transfer) were more successful than areas dealing with research management and training. Key accomplishments included: a master research plan for 1988-2000; a successful strategy to improve wheat production through intensified use of inputs; introduction of FSR in each province and establishment of a national FSR coordinating unit; a successful economic and social science program to monitor farmers" acceptance of research results and to keep research geared toward increasing productivity; good progress in arid zone research; support (since the 1990 amendment) to PARC efforts to establish linkages between research and private agribusinesses; commercialization of 15 technologies developed at PARC; the beginnings of private sector dissemination of research information; a successful competitive research grants program jointly coordinated by PARC and BOSTID; development at NARC and the provincial institutes of modern multi-media facilities for disseminating research results; establishment at the provincial level (though not sustainably at the national level) of committees of agricultural information communicators; and establishment at NARC of a Training Institute which has trained more than 7,000 agricultural scientists, research managers, extensionists, educators, farmers, and agribusinesspersons in the last 10 years. Lessons learned were as follows. (1) The centerpiece of the MART project was management, yet management of research received far less attention than technological aspects. (2) The implementing agency and the donor organization should agree beforehand on project objectives and implementing strategy. For example, the MART Project Paper called for PARC to add 14 staff to the NARC Training Institute and to conduct various indepth analyses of PARC systems, both of which PARC management declined to do. (3) The difficulty of effecting changes in the management of a large federal research system, and in developing the consensus needed for those changes, was not adequately addressed. Within a highly structured system, management is generally improved by liberating creative energies at the margin. (4) The critical nature of time lags becomes apparent when a long-term program nears completion with little probability of being extended. In this case, half of the long-term participants never returned to the project in time to contribute to it during its life. (5) Host country personnel must want to accomplish project tasks and believe that they can be accomplished. Some Pakistani personnel felt they were conducting research for USAID rather than for Pakistan with USAID help. Also, most of the proposed management interventions, especially those pertaining to financial and personnel management, were perceived as impossible to effect. The implementing agency should secure the concurrence of its senior and mid-level managers before embarking on new projects. (6) High-quality and seasoned expatriate consultants who refuse to get bogged down by the indifference of their host country counterparts are critical for the success of development projects, the advisor who developed the audiovisual facility at NARC being a case in point. Weak advisors, by contrast, get manipulated by shrewd counterparts and are reduced to the level of technical staff officers. Key recommendations for sustaining Pakistan"s agricultural research system with the cessation of USAID funding are to: (1) establish a precise role for NARC that supports provincial research without competing with it; (2) assure adequate resources for agricultural research (fortunately, the loss of USAID funding is being offset by the World Bank"s $80 million Second Agricultural Research Project); (3) develop a system-wide sharing of facilities and resources; (4) encourage the scientific excellence fostered by the 25 years of USAID training and other assistance to Pakistani research; and (5) encourage the research system"s responsiveness to farmers and agribusinesses.