Rodrigo de Oliveira Andrade
Latin America correspondent, SciDev.Net

It has been an action-packed day at the Second Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD2) so far. During the plenary session, which officially opened the meeting, we heard about the importance of discussing with smallholder farmers their needs to better define research priorities, as well as public policies to improve the agricultural development around the world, and about the essential role of partnership.

Monty Jones, chair of the Global Forum on Agriculture Research, said during his talk that radical changes in agricultural research for development are needed and that although research is essential, it in itself is not sufficient to impact the lives of smallholder farmers.

“We value scientific knowledge. However, it’s equally important to capitalise local knowledge, combining it with scientific knowledge to better attend to the needs of resource-poor farmers and smallholders,” he said.

Jones also highlighted the importance of putting farmers at the…