The Land Grant Footprint: Building Knowledge Networks in Developing Countries.

The impact of the land grant university footprint is not so much a function of the size of shoe, but of how one walked in those shoes.  This presentation reviews the role of Land Grant Universities (LGUs) and Collaborative Research Support Programs (CRSPs) in fostering agricultural development in developing countries during the latter half of the twentieth century and considers future challenges as we transition into the twenty-first century.  How we do science and subsequently come to transfer and apply that knowledge to add value in developing countries provides the focal point of the analysis. The conditions for developing and sharing knowledge are examined.  The concept of knowledge networks and who populates them is used as a framework for understanding technological change in agriculture and the footprints we have left and could make in the future.  We begin by examining the modalities by which LGU knowledge transfer methods have added value to agriculture focusing on the green revolution.  The discussion then turns to the challenges of building knowledge networks for continued progress in adding value to agriculture in developing countries: gender bias in knowledge networks at the farm level; and implementation of conservation agriculture approaches among limited resource farmers.  The presentation ends with a reflection on the implications of this analysis for USAID’s new program to promote science, technology and higher education in agriculture to combat food insecurity.