Sri Lanka Council for Agricultural Research Policy’s outgoing Chief recaps progress and way forward

Dr. D.T. Kingsley Bernard stepped down from the position of Chairman, Sri Lanka Council for Agricultural Research Policy (SLCARP) on 2 December, responding immediately to the circular issued by the Secretary to the President. Daily FT posed some questions to him relevant to Agricultural Research in Sri Lanka and the role of SLCARP. Based on his sound knowledge and experience in diverse sectors in the country such as exports,  manufacturing, trading, education, training, marketing, and management, etc., both in private sector and public sector institutions expanding over 35 years, Dr. Bernard shared his expert opinion. Following are  excerpts:

Q: What is the role of SLCARP?

 Very broadly, the SLCARP is responsible for formulating the Agricultural Research Policy of Sri Lanka and to monitor the agricultural research programs conducted by various institutions in the public and government sector organisations in the country and provide necessary coordination with the policy makers and facilitating the conduct of research studies which are in line with the National Agricultural Policy. 

SLCARP also provides these organisations a number of services such as capacity building of research staff of these organisations by funding post graduate study programs up to PhD level in identified foreign universities, upgrading the knowledge of staff by conducting workshops, research conferences and symposiums. SLCARP also offers an opportunity for these researchers to publish their research articles in the SLCARP Journal. 

Another important function of SLCARP is to encourage and motivate researchers by recognising and rewarding outstanding research projects completed by these researchers on a by-annual basis and also to offer financial assistance to conduct these research projects. Further, SLCARP offers assistance to researchers attached to state universities to conduct research in the field of Agriculture and related fields.

SLCARP is not an organisation which is conducting research by itself, but an organisation which monitors and coordinates research conducted by other organisations however, it needs researchers who understand and are having basic knowledge on the areas of research conducted by other organisations in agriculture, veterinary, fisheries, and forestry. Hence, SLCARP has one Executive Director, one Deputy Director, three senior scientists, and three research officers to coordinate, monitor and attend to other research related functions and the entire organisation is manned by less than 30 employees. 

 

Q: You mentioned that formulation of National Agricultural Research Policy as one the responsibilities of SLCARP. Could you briefly explain how this is done? Is it done only by the scientists attached to SLCARP?

 It is not done by the scientists or staff of SLCARP. If I may explain the process very briefly, firstly there are about 14 different organisations in the country which are engaged in Agricultural Research and SLCARP has categorised the research conducted by these organisations in to 12 broad areas of research and have formulated 12 national committees comprising of experts in each of these 12 areas. 

For example these experts may be retired officers who are highly qualified in their respective fields and having held top level positions in related institutions in agriculture and related fields. There are former Director Generals of Departments, Senior Professors, and Industry practitioners for example in these National Committees. 

The committees meet on a regular basis and engaged in the exercise of formulating National Policies for their respective areas. The role of SLCARP in this process is to identify suitable resource persons for these committees and facilitate their deliberations and meetings and provide support services and ensure smooth functioning of the committees. These committees formulate National Policies to cover a period of three years and these policy documents are distributed to research institutions operating in respective research areas. 

The selection of experts to these committees is done in a very professional manner by scanning the available human resources in specific areas of research and the Board of Directors of SLCARP have to give the final approval for selecting suitable experts in each sector. 

The Board of Directors are experts in their own fields and are highly experienced, therefore they perform this task of selecting these committee members very effectively. There were 14 members on the Board of Directors during my tenure of office as the Chairman and 11 were PhD holders who are holding or had held very high positions including a senor professor in a state university and others are representatives from the trade chambers and the industry who had a wide experience.

Q: How does SLCARP know that the expected outcomes of research projects are achieved by the respective institutions? 

 There is a mechanism called ‘External Reviews’ of research organisations by SLCARP. Again in this process too SLCARP draws the expertise from the academia and industry to evaluate the outcomes of these research projects conducted by different organisations. 

For each research institution one External Review panel is appointed comprising of experts in respective fields. These panel members visit these respective institutions and study the performance and make a presentation to the SLCARP board on their findings and corrective measures are recommended if necessary and steps taken to again monitor the implementation of the corrective measures recommended. Every year a certain number of identified research institutions are reviewed by SLCARP in this manner and reports forwarded to respective authorities for action.

Q: From your responses to our questions, we understand that SLCAP has a specific and a clear role to play in the Agriculture sector in the country and SLCARP has developed appropriate programs to accomplish  its’ role and achieve its objectives. However, good these programs are, we are certain that there may be certain challenges faced by SLCARP in implementing these programs. What are those and how to avoid them?

 Yes, of course, there are number of them. As you have noted from my answers to your previous questions, SLCARP depends very much on the experts drawn from outside of the organisation i.e. resource persons from the academia and industry which is of course very practical than maintaining a big carder of experts in house. Therefore, sustaining their level of motivation and enthusiasm to participate in respective committees and share their knowledge and expertise is a must for SLCARP. 

For some of these resource persons, they have to travel long distances to come for these meetings which are generally held in SLCAP office in Colombo. SLCARP has not been able to offer transport facilities or to compensate their travel expenses adequately. 

Further, though the services rendered by these experts are very valuable and difficult to put a price tag on those, which is not expected by these experts either, it is more than justifiable for SLCARP to make a decent honorarium for their services. 

However, it is sad to say that these rates maintained by SLCARP are very much below the industry norms and also compared to other similar public sector organisations too. Being an organisation which is funded by the treasury funds, the possibility of increasing these rates is remote, which is a challenge for the organisation.

Another challenge is the lack of understanding and recognition of research priorities by the policy makers. As a result most of the research organisations are under staffed including certain institutions under government departments. 

Further, the salaries and other benefits offered to the researchers of these organisations are very much below than that of researchers in state universities. Hence, there is a strong tendency for these researchers to look for greener pastures within and outside the country. The day that we have to close down some of these research institutions due nonavailability of research staff would not be in the distant future.

Q: Having asked a few specific questions on SLCARP, let us draw your attention to agriculture research in Sri Lanka. Do you think that Sri Lanka is successful in implementing its National Agricultural Research Plan and if not what are the remedies?

 My answer is that we cannot be fully satisfied by the outcome of our research efforts in agriculture. There are a few reasons for that, let me explain major ones. 

I strongly feel that research should focus on solving issues, problems, and difficulties of the farmers and offer smart solutions to them in improving the productivity of their farming operations. Some research projects are not focused to existing problems of the farmers and tries to find an easy way out to get academic credit for researchers rather than finding solutions to practical problems or issues of the farmers. This happens both in agricultural and agrarian research fields. 

Secondly, even the important research findings of appropriate research projects have not been disseminated adequately to the farmers through the existing extension mechanism in the country due to various weaknesses of the system. Hence the implementation of appropriate programs in line with research findings are also hindered. 

Thirdly, there are a number of government/ public institutions offering assistance to the researchers to conduct their research however, there is no proper rationalisation of the assistance offered and criteria used by different institutions for evaluating these research projects. This also is an impediment to conduct useful research projects. 

The remedies to avoid these weaknesses are firstly, the researchers as responsible citizens of the country  should realise that research expenditure is a costly luxury for a developing country like ours and exercise extreme care to make sure “first country before self” approach. They should accept the fact that research is not for the sake of research but should add value to the society, the farming community in particular. 

Secondly, the government should revisit all the existing network of organisations, the public institutions which assist researchers in their research activities and set uniform standards and criteria for offering assistance especially financial assistance and impose rational measures to streamline the operations of these organisations. 

Thirdly, the top management of research institutions should exercise more care and attention on the research topics, areas, and relevance of the projects conducted by researchers attached to the respective institutions.