Agricultural research broadly covcrs two areas -- plant breeding research and crop and resource managenient research (CRMR). Plant breeding research has been satisfactory, although the lag in getting research to farmers is often long. In wheat, the average age of varieties in farmers' fields is about 1l years, compared to an average of about 7 years for developing countries. This reflects failures in extension and seed marketing. There is much duplication of effort in breeding research, and economies of scale could be realized if some breeding institutes at different levels of government were consolidated.

Crop management research emphasizes increases in productivity through research on such issues as timing and method of application of input rather than type of input, and land preparation and harvesting. Resource management research focuses on preservation of the natural resource base. For most crops in Pakistan, it is difficult to find good examples of CRMR which have been translated to farmers' fields. Much evidence indicates that key inputs such as water and fertilizer are inefficiently used.

Existing research has failed to increase input efficiency. Outcomes from well-controlled experiments need to be better tailored to farmer conditions. Issuing technical packages to large, heterogeneous groups of farmers is not enough unless farmers have the means to adapt these packages to their own circumstances. Crop and resource management research lacks a systems perspective. Specialized research tends to ignore interactions between different crops and different agronomic issues. Key long-term issues such as necessary natural resource investments are generally ignored.

Extension: Most studies indicate that the variables that consistently explain farmer inefficiency are farmers' knowledge and skills. As emphasis switches from input intensification to input efficiency, improvements in information and skills play a bigger role in increasing productivity. The information burden on farmers will only increase as agriculture becomes more conmmercialized and sustainability issues come to the fore. Extension thus has a central role in improving productivity growth, and also in making the distribution of benefits from knowledge more equitable. Small farmers may find it more expensive to acquire knowledge, and so public extension has a role in equalizing access to new methods.

Extension prograxns are a significant item in the current agricultural budget of the government but their impact is negligible. An elaborate extension system is already in place for crops, but many farmers question its usefulness. Organizational problems are severe (especially lack of accountability), and operational funding for extension workers is low. The desired ratio of wage to operational (non-wage) expenditure in agricultural research is 60:407, but the prevailing ratios many of the provinces are in excess of 80:20. For instance, in NWFP, the ratio of salaries to operational expenditure actually deteriorated from 75:25 in 1982-83, to 85:15 in 1992-93. In addition, the salary budget is spread too thinly over extension staff.

There are now over 5,000 village extension workers (EWs) but they often lack adequate training, which makes their task of improving the management skills of farmers very difficult.

Palcistan Public Expenditure Review, **World** Bank, 1992.

19