Analysis of the Cognitive Role of Agricultural Research & Development Institutes in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Knowledge and information flow in developing countries is focused more towards commercial activities than technology related matters. Further, the capacity of all actors in the agriculture sector to comprehend and exchange work related information can profoundly affect the effectiveness of the knowledge dissemination process. The study's intention was to ascertain the structural behaviour of the R & D institutions based on their absorptive capacity and external openness. A semi-structured questionnaire was employed for this purpose and distributed among a sample of 26 Agricultural R & D institutions. The Study showed that the absorptive capacity of the agricultural R & D institutions in Sri Lanka is reflected fairly accurately by the internal human resource capacity and the combined years of experience of the human capital within each institution. The absorptive capacity of an institution determines its behaviour within the institutional cluster. The study made it clear that agricultural research institutes are of a heterogeneous nature in their absorptive capacity and in the cognitive role they played in the knowledge network. Many research institutes in Sri Lanka act as the knowledge absorbers and mutual exchangers of information within the agriculture knowledge network in Sri Lanka.