Advanced agronomic training needs and priority agricultural research in Turkey

This paper covers defining of agricultural research priority areas and training needs linking with them in Turkey. The methodology used in this study, was developed by Forster et al. (1986) in USA, and adapted to agriculture in Australia (CSIRO 1991). 17 Areas of Research Opportunities (AROs) for Turkey's agriculture were defined in general terms to account for the full range of research activities being undertaken by the research institutes. Each ARO was assessed as to the return to Turkey from research and development, based on four independent scoring criteria, that are potential benefits to Turkey of the ARO, Turkey's ability to capture these potential benefits, research and development (R and D) potential in the ARO, and R and D capacity in regard to the ARO. Scores for attractiveness and feasibility for research ARO were derived from the scores for these 3 criteria. Attractiveness was calculated as the product of the potential benefits to Turkey in the ARO, and Turkey's ability to capture these benefits. Feasibility was calculated as the product of the technical potential of relevant areas of R and D, and the current capacity to realise this R and D potential and achieve the technology goals in an efficient and timely way. The AROs were grouped according to high, medium or low priority. 85 research programs were identified, and their priorities were established by a similar process to the one utilised to determine ARO priorities. Comparisons between current investment and investment required for future priority research were made based on the basic relative priorities of AROs. Resources allocated by the General Directorate of Agricultural Research to all these research programs were inadequate and there were not sufficient trained staff. High priority research programs where R and D capacity is limited by skills, knowledge, and facilities were identified within each ARO, and investments in facility improvement were linked to these programs. Following the same procedure, advanced training needs were identified by directed towards high priority research programs with low R and D capacity caused by limited skills and knowledge.