Malle Roga: from Research to Impact

Much of the research work carried out by the Agriculture, Health and Environment Department of NRI is focussed on solving economically important agricultural and horticultural problems faced by the poorest farmers in the developing world. Our experience has taught us that obtaining value-for-money from this type of research necessitates identifying a clear demand at the beginning of the process, as well as an early assessment of the possible technological solutions that would be both acceptable and adopted by farmers.

Further along the process, stewardship of the most promising technologies is also required, preferably involving public-private partnerships, to ensure significant developmental impact generation. An example of this process is provided by the highly successful Tomato leaf curl virus disease and whitefly projects, which were funded by DFID and currently have a benefit:cost return on research of at least 764:1.

The video above is a 7.5 minute film entitled, “Malle Roga: from Research to Impact”, which describes various important steps in the process, the technologies developed, disseminated and adopted by growers, as well as the substantial developmental impact.

Further information can be obtained from Professor John Colvin.