Kansas State University

Agricultural students involved in research activities are constantly testing and fine tuning new technologies. The improvements they have observed are shared with the public through research papers, posters, feature articles or news items. Although they contribute to the advancement of knowledge, only a few of these can be applied to solving problems in the real world because their research objectives are defined by boundaries similar to a bubble. Improving farming productivity, however, is a far more complex undertaking and involves multiple interacting factors that almost always do not provide the right platform to integrate research conducted within artificial boundaries.

Adaptive research is a concept that looks beyond the bubble. It allows opportunities for researchers with multiple disciplines to converge and address a complex challenge in situ to increase the probability of improving the situation on the ground.

One example of such dynamic and extremely complex scenario is in improving the socioeconomic conditions and the livelihoods of the farming community in the coastal regions, specifically the polder communities of Bangladesh. Using a large command area (around 600 hectares) as an experimental site, the project aims to involve M.S. and Ph.D. students from disciplines including agronomy, social sciences, economics, climate-crop modeling, human and livestock nutrition, among other fields needed to respond to the challenging objectives set by geographic and environmental boundaries. The platform will bring in experts from the International Rice Research Institute, Kansas State University, BRAC, local extension officers, local universities in Bangladesh, and, most importantly, the farming community.

The overall goal is to gradually develop the local capacity and the skills for pragmatic sustainable interventions for improving their socioeconomic and nutritional status.

 

By Krishna Jagadish

-Dr. Jagadish is an associate professor at Kansas State University.