Nicaragua: responding to the needs of farmers using agricultural technology and innovation systems

Focusing on Nicaraguan farmers and their use of agricultural technology and innovation systems, this brief highlights recent lessons emerging from the operational and analytical programme of the World Bank‘s Latin America and Caribbean Region.In response to a number of structural problems in the agricultural sector, the Nicaraguan Government in partnership with the World Bank, launched a long-term investment programme in agricultural technology in 2001 in order to implement policy and institutional reforms. The three pillars on which the reform programme rested were: Institutional capacity development, developing an agricultural technical education and training system, and developing an agricultural technology information system.The article highlights a number of important lessons that were learned in the first two years:reforms must be devised as a whole and approached together, linking institutions that rarely act together - external agents can help break the status quothe elite head and staff of existing institutions, resist change -external individuals/ teams can accelerate the innovation processinstitutional modification and/or capacity building take time, and dedicated effort. This justifies longer-term programmes, but should not be an excuse to neglect technical, social and political needs for achieving quick resultsformal education qualifications often exceed real knowledge and skills -staffing should be based on practical criteria and the capacity to achieve concrete resultsexternal expertise is required to provide inputs and suggestions from countries with successful experiences, and opinions that are less likely to be interpreted as political rather then technicalcontinuous feedback is needed, to changes procedures that prove ineffective or uselessly fatiguingdeveloping a proper communication strategy needs serious attention from the program’s inceptiontechnology generation and transfer in combination are necessary but not sufficient to increase productivity; increasing productivity alone will not guarantee increased net income and well-being. In a competitive, open environment, emphasis must also be given to other important factors, particularly development of infrastructure, marketing and farmer organisations.