Abstract:
As agriculture becomes increasingly liberalized and
commercialised, public research systems are having to
embrace wider goals of poverty reduction and
environmental preservation, as well as serving a wider
variety of clients (policy makers, environmental groups,
consumers, etc.), all demanding greater participation
in the research process. Attempts by public research
and development (R&D) to address these new
challenges include institutional pluralism and
partnerships in delivering research services,
competitive allocation of public (R&D) resources
(currently accounting for over 12% of all agricultural
research funding worldwide; and mechanisms to
strengthen links with stakeholders. Uganda is currently
revising its national agricultural research system to
meet these changes, and in common with other research
organisations, has identified development themes
currently challenging agricultural research.