Presentation by Abdul Halim (Unitech, PNG) at the APAARI High Level Policy Dialogue, 8 Dec 2015

1. Return from Investment in Higher
Education, Research and Extension
Professor Abdul Halim
Department of Agriculture
PNG University of Technology
Papua New Guinea
ahalim@ag.unitech.ac.pg

2. Presentation Outline
• Return from investment in higher education,
research and extension through Universities
• Experiences of PNG Unitech
• Recommendations for policy guidelines

3. Agri. Knowledge and Information
Diffusion Overtime
• Old China, Mesopotamia, Niles in Egypt, Indus in
India and other continents
• Land Grant colleges in USA, Oxford and
Cambridge, IAU and others are historical
examples.
• University’s 3rd responsibility: Extension,
Outreach, Adult Education, Community Dev.,
Rural Dev., Advisory Services, HRD, RLI etc. are
the same in different nomenclatures

4. Investment in ERE4D Pays Off
• Increased productivity & production are related
with investment
• 57 country studies synthesized by Evenson are
examples
• Hayami and Kikuchi’s macro study - Philippines’
UPLB & IRRI’s contribution in rice production
• Halim’s micro study in 40 barrios of Laguna:
Ext. & Edu. facilitate worker & allocative effects,
respectively and their interaction effect is more
sustainable

5. Return from Investment in
Extension
• Extension’s rates of return 5-50 %in
developing countries (AKAP), studies by
Evenson
• Although some times “extension gaps”,
“research gaps” and “science gaps” are there.
• Investment in other sectors as ICT facilitates to
minimize the gaps depending on situations.

6. Pluralistic Agri. Extension Approach
• Pluralistic Extension Approach (PEA) evolved
over time replacing Linear Extension
Approaches (LEA) is more effective.
• PEA delivers information and knowledge for
family livelihood improvement in the changed
environments, which goes beyond agriculture.
• Non-agricultural sectors also benefit from
extension information delivered through PEA.

7. Benefits of Higher Education &
Research Through University
System
• 3 types of benefits of higher education: private,
social and research benefits. All these benefits are
diffused to the farm, firms and society at large.
• Estimated private & social rate of return to
university degree is about 15% in Australia (Jeff
Borland et al).
• The involvement of staff and students in research
and community services accelerates sustainable
capacity building process.

8. The Third Function of a University:
PNG Unitech
• The third function of a University which is
“Extension” was started in one locality-Tumua in
Markham valley as a case study in 2004.
• Under & post graduates students along with
supervisors are involved in the process.
• South Pacific Institute for Sustainable Agriculture
& Rural Development (SPISARD) of the School
of Agriculture is mandated to manage this
community services.

9. PNG University of Technology
(contd.)
• Education-research-extension-training-
demonstration activities are run as a package
along with other stakeholders.
• The services of the faculties, students, private and
public partners, village community are involved
in AKAP process to build sustainable “knowledge
triangle” in the society.
• An “Educational Institutional Approach” (EIA)
for Rural Livelihood Improvement has been
developed over time through experiences.

10. PNG University of Technology
(contd.)
• Program extended to 74 villages in 4 regions
educating about 3000 persons of whom 50% are
women.
• The generic training and demonstration is on
“Personal Viability and Livelihood Improvement”
covers 21 specialized areas in crops, livestock,
floriculture, aquaculture, food processing & value
adding, health and nutrition, financial
management, livelihood skills, book keeping etc.

11. PNG University of Technology
(contd.)
• Cost sharing among the stakeholders with
students and staff involvement in the process
facilitated to make it cost effective.
• The estimated cost of training/person is kina
37-50 (Us$ 15-20) depending on duration and
contents of training and demonstration.
• Entrepreneurs among rural youth is another
achievement through students and staff of the
university.

12. Lessons for other Pacific countries
• The package investment in higher education-
research-extension and their interactions yields
enormous benefits for sustainable knowledge
based human capital in the society.
• This motivates staff, students, community and
other partners for building knowledge society
with minimum cost and time.
• Access to large cohort of youth for
entrepreneurship is easy through university
system.

13. Policy Recommendations
• Increased package allocation in education-
research-extension- innovations through
educational institutions is desirable with no
budget cut, specially in isolated pacific island
countries.
• Youth being a large cohort of population needs
special consideration not only for development
but also to bring peace and tranquillity in the
society.

14. Policy Recommendations
• Public spending on research-extension-
education in agriculture must be more than 2%
of agricultural GDP.
• Research on policy for investment in
agriculture sectors is needed for continuous
updating and adjustments of country specific
policies.

20. Pond at Dimbil Village
Ponds containing 15000 fish (tilapia and carp) at Dimbil village

21. Vegetable growing
20 participants: 7 women and 13 men
EDLEARN11 conference, Barcelona

22. Adult literacy
11 participants: 9 women and 2 men
EDLEARN11 conference, Barcelona

23. Cooking and Baking
A total of 42 participants : 2 male and 40 female
EDLEARN11 conference, Barcelona

24. Soap and Dishwashing paste
25 participants: 16 women and 9 men
EDLEARN11 conference, Barcelona

25. Sewing training
25 participants: Lutheran Women’s Group
EDLEARN11 conference, Barcelona

26. An Entrepreneur at Mutzing village
Markham valley