My purpose today is to identify a number of challenges that Civil Society faces we think about
crafting a future vision for promoting a civil society engagement in policy forums in Agricultural
Research for Development. I want to look at challenges in four specific areas:
¿ How can civil society work better with research and extension services at the local level?
¿ How can civil society engage with agricultural research policy forums?
¿ How can civil society get better organized?
¿ How can civil society communicate with each other?
But, before I address these questions I want to give some context to the challenges we face.
Our focus today is on Agricultural Research for Development. The context for me here is the
development of small holder family farms everywhere. A form of sustainable agriculture in which
farming systems provide ecosystem and social services as well as produce commodities for trade.
However, many farm families work in unfavourable policy environments where it is difficult to get
access to land or financial resources. Where there is poor access to local markets for their products,
perhaps because of ¿dumping¿ by richer countries. My last note on context concerns the rapid swing in
government services towards decentralization and privatization of agricultural extension. Increasingly
strapped governments fall short in development support to other key sectors like health, education and
transport, that influence agricultural development.