การประชุ
มวิ
ชาการและเสนอผลงานวิ
จั
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ทยาลั
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ณ ครั้
งที่
19 ประจำป
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A Review of Applied Research Approaches
The review of some 30 years of research and thinking about development is entitled
‘Integrating Reductionist Research into International Agricultural Development’ and subtitled
‘Re-conceiving Agricultural Research for Development; Technical Support for Development;
Thai Agriculture; International Agriculture; Agricultural Education’.
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Non-agriculturists
need not fear that this is critical of them or omits their disciplines – in fact it is critical of
agricultural science for omitting consideration of other disciplines.
The story begins with a realization of the inefficiencies in the conduct of field research
resulting from inadequate cross-disciplinary considerations, particularly the social sciences.
While the methodology of farming-systems research purports to do this, an even wider
perspective is needed to include non-tangible human-environmental interactions and ancient
value systems. This deficiency has led to international agricultural development being
less effective than was predicted and in some cases being detrimental to poor rural communities.
Divisions between technical, historical, social, environmental, political, educational
and other research has followed conventional approaches of European cultures, but may
not suit other cultural environments, such as Thailand.
Postulating that mono-disciplinary technical research was more suited to the Australian than
the Thai situation, the human environment was added to the research design in Thailand. Instead
of just looking solely at means of increasing the rate of growth and reproduction of cattle raised by
hill-tribes in northern Thailand, the objectives of these people in owning cattle were first investigated.
The results indicated different measures of production and efficiency including use of cattle in religious
sacrificial rites, which in turn were found to make good common sense – a sacrificial rite that leads to
the whole village increasing its protein intake at a time when most human deaths occur is an important
survival mechanism, and one that was still of value to socially and politically marginalized
hilltribes in Thailand in the 1970s. This inclusion of social science research allowed technical
research to be more relevant and led to contributions to technical knowledge in fields as diverse
as range management research techniques, identification of nutrient deficiencies and
demonstration of the superior potential of indigenous domestic animals within specific
physical and human environments. If the research had taken a one-eyed technical approach,
all that might have been found was a theoretical improvement in production terms that was
not able to be implemented in that political and social environment.
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Falvey, J.L. (2003) Integrating Reductionist Research into International Agricultural Development:
Re-conceiving Agricultural Research for Development; Technical Support for Development; Thai Agriculture;
International Agriculture; Agricultural Education. Higher Doctorate (D.Agr.Sc.), University of Melbourne.
