Humanizing technology development in the green revolution's home.

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter describes the history, current focus, and outlook of social science research at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). It is shown that the social science research agenda at CIMMYT has expanded from a narrow focus on technology adoption to encompass technology design and evaluation, technology targeting, adoption and impact assessment, research priority setting and many other issues. While much of the Economics Programme's work is grounded in traditional economic analysis, a considerable amount has been based on methods drawn from social sciences other than economics, including anthropology, human ecology, and political science. Three lessons are drawn from this brief review of social science research at CIMMYT: (1) successful technology development requires participation by social scientists, because they deal with human perceptions and behaviour that must be understood if technology development efforts are to be effective; (2) social science research cannot be conducted in isolation, separate from research done by biological and physical scientists; and (3) close collaboration between all branches of the social sciences helps define more comprehensive and relevant messages, increasing their usefulness to plant scientists and to crop and resource management specialists.