Funding for closer linkages, from whatever source, will have to be tailored to the diverse
qualities that NGOs bring to analysis of small farmers' conditions, and to the development
and dissemination of technologies, if valuable potential is not to be lost.


 Conclusions

This paper draws on over 70 case studies from three continents of NGOs' work in agricultural
technology development in order to examine actual and potential inter-institutional interac-
tions. From such a wide range of evidence, it is striking that few cases have been identified
in which:

i) NGOs have engaged over extended periods in the systematic screening, testing and
 dissemination of technologies.

ii) NGOs and government research and extension services have developed mutually-
 dependent collaborative arrangements designed to exploit functional complementarities.

We conclude that NGOs have demonstrated two major ways of contributing to inter-
institutional linkages.

The first lies in the capabilities, perspectives and experiences that NGOs can offer to GOs
which have some prospect of enhancing their efficiency as producers and deliverers of
technologies adoptable by the rural poor. The capabilities they bring to bear in doing this
derive from close knowledge of the needs and opportunities of the rural poor in relation to
agricultural change, not merely in the narrow sense of crop or animal technology, but in the
wider context of innovation located in systems which spatially go beyond the farm boundary
to embrace the use of off-farm biomass, and sequentially go beyond farming systems into
processing and marketing.

Their capabilities also derive from three further perspectives: first, the fact that their
approaches are issue-led; second, that they seek to relieve constraints across a wide front
(including nutrition, informal education, input supply, credit) in order to resolve these issues
and, third, that at least some are aware that, contrary to the general view in the FSR/E
community, marginal changes in farm productivity are insufficient to ensure the adoption of
change: many of the rural poor are not committed to farming per se, but require cash incomes
to purchase a stake in non-farming futures, including education for their children.

Changes in NGOs' and GOs' respective roles and in the interactions between them that might
be expected if the public sector is to respond to what NGOs have to offer include the following:

1. Functional Research-Extension-Feedback Links

Those NGOs comfortable with the role of providing services under contract to the State are


GATEKEEPER SERIES NO. SA43