Book of Abstract (incl. addendum) - IFSA symposium 2012

Workshop 1.1 Knowledge flows in pluralistic research and advisory systems: how do advisors
keep up-to-date and to what extent is their advice evidence-based?
with farmers and extensionists. They tended to have a negative attitude towards farmer-oriented
participatory research approaches. In the mid 2000s, government ratified a legislation to privatize
extension system, especially based on a contractual agricultural extension service delivery. The 2010’s
case revealed that agricultural researchers had little connection with private agricultural service
companies, who were in charge of agricultural innovation delivery. No mechanism has been defined
for linking research centres to the private sector. The researchers have been encouraged to focus on the
research problems which were mostly based on academic incentives such as international and national
academic journal publications rather than farmers’ needs. The privatization has led to a poorer linkage
of research with extension systems and farmers.
Learning aspects by the Danish System for a Brandenburg NE German
concept
Kirsten von der Heiden
Aforeg – communication
Kommunikation@aforeg.de
Manifold framework conditions and structural changes have formed the present Agricultural
Knowledge System - AKS in the post-socialist German Federal State of Brandenburg. Organisational
and institutional structures have been in transition since 1990, compelled to search for new functions
and roles in the free market system. After 20 years there is no formal solution visible yet, reconsidering
public goods issues, except requirements and planning hierarchies, which had to be installed for new in
the 90th in all New Federal States of Germany. The official solutions chosen in Europe according
sustainability approaches in agriculture and rural areas are diverse in the sense of privatisation level of
advisory services and structure of extension education. The Brandenburg case fits the category “private
finance – private delivery” (Rivera 2001), while the Brandenburg education system still has more
elements under public support.
Learning aspects from the Danish Example, mainly the last years´ structural changes, are chosen
to help answering open questions of the Brandenburg cases (1990 in process - 2002 fully privatised
agricultural extension system) towards an innovative extension and education system including
environmental aspects and informal strategies.
The table 1 in Heiden (2006, p. 371) gives an overview of criteria chosen as important for
international AKS estimation searching for rural development options in Agricultural Knowledge
Systems:
A) Criteria taken for description and identification of characteristics
B) Estimation and Chances of Success for Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems for
Rural Development - AKIS/RD.
Expert interviews with stakeholders who took or still take an active part on the changing
processes will be brought into the debate about the respectively other system. Comparabilities and
differences of the Danish and Brandenburg systems will be derived and from the authors´ prospective
most important linkages and aspects on these will be fundamentally described, e.g. networking and
knowledge centre activities like the Danish Agro Food Park.
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