Innovative IndoUS Collaborations Missed Opportunities

1
Innovative Indo-US Collaborations Missed
Opportunities
C. Shambu Prasad Xavier Institute of Management,
Bhubaneswar
2
Institutional Mechanisms in KIA

• establishing a standing Indo-US Joint Working
  Group
• sharing the US experience in curriculum
  development
• organizing workshops for review and planning in
  certain identified areas
• building institutional capacity - extension and
  outreach activities, library resources,
  networking and leadership development ....

3
Questions on the Institutional Mechanisms

• Would this transform Indian agriculture?
• How would this impinge on the ongoing farm crisis
  in India?
• Who are the beneficiaries ICAR, US Dept of
  Agriculture, companies (IPR issues)
  or........farmers?

4
Science Studies perspective

• science and technology are made by humans and not
  discovered in nature
• science and technology are political, shaped by
  social actors
• the practice of science policy in India needs to
  be more democratic
• better science policy making by exploring whether
  science and technology in a particular context
  could indeed be otherwise. ... the role of
  dissenters and alternate imaginations
• Have there been Indo US collaborations that are
  different from the Land Grant models that offer
  insights on current institutions?
• Can we build our insitutions capacities from
  these initiatives?

5
Changing role of Institutions globally

• Institutional Learning And Change initiative
• UN Millenium report on S T
• Research and Technology for Development RTD
  framework in EU-ACP
• NAIP 2006
• .... How does KIA relate to debates on
  institutions from some of these ongoing debates?

6
ILAC Old Institutions, new mandates

• Most agricultural research centres set up with
  simple goals of increasing food supplies now MDGs
  and greater speak on poverty reduction and
  environmental sustainability. For these they must
  become less isolated, more interconnected and
  more responsive to emerging needs. (farming
  crisis)
• Traditional transfer-of-technology approaches to
  agricultural research can no longer keep pace
  with the complex, diverse, risk-prone and dynamic
  situations faced by poor farmers.

7
Science and Innovation UN Task Force

• explicit recognition for university reform models
  
• special mention about the Earth Institute in
  Costa Rica universities seeking new models to
  address challenges of sustainable development and
  creating agents of change
• need for forging partnerships with
  nongovernmental organizations.
• clearly mentions the possibility and need for
  greater role for civil society and farmers
  associations, the KIA sees none.
• governing structure of KIA has one entry for NGOs
  and that too from US? Are there none in India?
• What is Indias equivalent of the Earth Institute?

8
Higginbottom and forgotten Indo US collaboration

• Setting of AAI not the first agricultural college
  in India but set up with different principles
  than later land grant or TV or then desire to
  fillup posts in agricultural service. Need to
  equip India with scientifically trained farmers.
• pioneering research in farm implements, the first
  ever degree course in agricultural engineering,
  one of the earliest schemes of extension projects
  and a womens programme in home science. strong
  social science unit as well, earliest programme
  on rural development in Gwalior and Ujjain.

9
Higginbottom and forgotten Indo US collaboration

• Ignored by imperial council for agricultural
  research but closely followed by Gandhi.
• Be part of AIVIA, advise on agriculture...
• Come, see the afflicted area and tell us how
  (to) drain water-logged areas, how (to) remove
  the sand which covers our fair fields. Of course
  the Government and the people are working in
  unison. But you know my regard for your expert
  knowledge. Even if you do not show us anything
  new, I personally will have the satisfaction of
  knowing that you have seen the area. 1934
  earthquake.
• Invites to head Congress agriculture wing
• Elmhirst Schumacher college centre for ecology
  Cornell connection

10
Silent Indo US collaboration SRI

• Rapid spread of SRI in the world and India from
  origins in Madagascar due to enlightened US
  interest and a different view of knowledge.
• CIIFAD and Uphoff newer institutions
• Lukewarm response to change initially from ICAR
  etc.
• Facilitated exchange of scientists to Sri Lanka
  not US changed official climate for SRI in AP
  and India
• Lead to newer models of technology transfer but
  also to newer knowledge in global commons.
• Alapati and others in rice wars debate. Not
  India versus US but newer combinations of Indo US
  knowledge against other versions of the same.

11
Silent Indo US collaboration SRI

• the deliberate effort by CIIFAD and Uphoff to
  maintain knowledge in public domain.
• farmers, agricultural scientists and citizen
  sector promoters have accessed information from
  the internet sharing and exchanging information
  etc.
• it is indeed possible even today for knowledge
  flows to occur that can benefit farmers without
  going through the formal, expensive and often
  discriminatory intellectual property regime.
• to be effective in todays globalized world,
  global networks help if they are representative
  and transparent.

12
Silent Indo US collaboration SRI

• innovation networks cannot be restricted to
  Indo-US bilateral relations alone and need to be
  seen as part of a new global commons.
• Silent operation of Cornell alumni..
• SRI represents an alternative paradigm of
  researching agriculture and understanding plants
  and their ecosystem
• need for a post modern agriculture based on a
  newer outlook that takes cognizance of recent
  crises in energy and soils.

13
What can KIA learn?

• Examples as exemplars and not common knowledge
• Science and technology are important for
  development.
• There have been historical and contemporary
  efforts that have shown different ways of doing
  the same.
• These initiatives have not been narrow in their
  vision but have been clear on the role of farmers
  in agricultural development.
• These initiatives have believed in knowledge
  being in the public (not public sector) domain
  and have not been constrained by oppressive IPR
  regimes and lastly
• The vision of KIA seems to have learnt little
  from the history of Indo US collaborations and is
  clearly in light of revision if not complete
  overhaul based on the above historical evidence
  as well as recent trends in thinking on
  agricultural research.