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From that understanding of the role of con-
text for research, a review of some 1,000 references
about agriculture in Thailand was conducted.
15
This led to the conclusion that the historical origins
of the Thai agricultural culture can explain ap-
parently conflicting responses to the application
of externally conceived research. In many cases
imported assumptions of research and of devel-
opment from European-influenced cultures proved to be inappropriate to small-holder farmers.
Testing this conclusion further within a wider international agricultural context confirmed
that the usual research approaches, while technically sound, contained elements of their own
ineffectiveness. Hundreds of development reports and countless research papers related to
development implied that the failure to orient research to local historical, cultural and environmental
conditions had led to biases in policies developed for international research and its funding,
including from national governments.
16
One important conclusion was that smallholder
agriculture requires different policy considerations to commercial agriculture, especially as
agriculture was often assumed to be a social welfare net in times of urban economic downturns
– yet most countries including Thailand persisted in copying Western models that assumed
all agriculture to be commercial.
Scientists trained in the West or in western-style of research continue to be the major
influencers of both research and development policy, and so perpetuate the bias through increased
westernization of university education.
17
This is simply the effect of inevitable globalization,
which is generally neither good nor bad. Yet more-developed countries increasingly regard
agricultural education as having failed to meet its obligations as a function of its separation
from natural resource management concepts, social sciences and inter-disciplinary knowledge.
In less-developed countries where agriculture performs a primary welfare function, the failure
of this approach copied from the West may well be even greater.
Overall the experience of these 30 years identified a more efficient basis for the conduct of
applied research, particularly in less-developed countries. By widening consideration to such
15
Falvey, L. (2000) Thai Agriculture: Golden Cradle of Millennia. Kasetsart University Press, Bangkok.
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16
Falvey, L. (2004) Sustainability: Elusive or Illusory? Wise Environmental Intervention. 245pp. Institute
for International Development Fund, Adelaide <
>
17
Falvey, L. (1996) Food Environmental Education: Agricultural Education in Natural Resource
Management, The Crawford Fund and the Institute for International Development, (ISBN 064629363X)
280pp..
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